


Commitment

by Spatial



Series: Sierenn Saga [2]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Knotting, Mating Bond, Minor Character Death, Pregnancy, brief battle scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-03-11 10:04:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13521942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spatial/pseuds/Spatial
Summary: A war on foreign lands is hardly the backdrop Queen Ayrenn and her lover, the green-clad battlereeve we call Sielaire, would have chosen for the start of their romance, but neither strong willed woman is powerful enough to resist the draw of each other. Their desire may be instinctual, but their fledgling relationship is proving from easy. Once sealed, mating bonds cannot be broken... the same cannot be said for promises.At least, not all of them.[Sequel toConsecration, An A/B/O HEA version of Ayrenn and Sielaire's romance diverting fromRaison D'etre. Was posted in longer single-chapter arcs, slightly re-worked for organizational purposes. Previously Consummation, Conception, and (unposted) Commitment.]





	1. Campaign

Sielaire had thought things would go back to normal. Or at least, that  _they_ would go back to normal.

But though her heat had clearly passed, Ayrenn continued to seek her out as their journey continued.

The Queen would ask the battlereeve to ride alongside her throughout the day, their mounts nosing each other in friendly greeting as Ayrenn pointed out things that reminded her of her earlier travels. Sielaire would listen to every word even as her eyes continuously scanned their surroundings for any sign of trouble, until Ayrenn would slide the story into increasingly ridiculous levels of fable, goading Sielaire into an incredulous response. Ayrenn would watch as her ears slowly pinkened, waiting for Sielaire to turn back to her with a knowing smirk, daring her to call the queen's bluffs. Then she'd race forward to rejoin the front of the line, leaving Sielaire to stare after her.

But only for a little while. Ayrenn often found a seat near Sielaire at mealtimes, would walk beside her during breaks, and evenings spent around the campfire she would drift to sleep "accidentally" leaning against the battlereeve. And all the while, instead of pulling herself away from the rest of the company to focus on Sielaire, the opposite seemed to be true. Sielaire found herself introduced to people she would have never thought to converse with, Ayrenn stitching miniscule observations into entire conversations with an ease that baffled and eluded Sielaire. So from Ayrenn's head of security, Urcelmo and Andralda the blacksmith, to the greenest recruit in the newly arrived battalion, she soon became acquainted with the entire company and its many complications and moving parts.

There was one place where this did not hold true, however. Ayrenn and Sielaire continued to spar,  _exclusively_ , and on days where their bouts ended lit by starlight, Ayrenn's melee attacks would smoothly morph into sensual touches. Her hands in Sielaire's hair would massage instead of pull, a finger might trail up the ridge of an ear, or she'd worry her own lip between her teeth as she eyed Sielaire's. Daring. Pleading. Wanting a different sort of exercise out of her companion.

And it seemed she always got what she wanted, save one thing they both deeply desired.

* * *

Ayrenn stood up and slung her sleep roll over her shoulder, "I'm going to go check on the rations with Urcelmo."

Sielaire nodded and remained focused on finishing their task, packing up the last few pieces of Ayrenn's tent. Along with the larger tent they sometimes set up to house the sick and injured, or as a mobile war-room, Ayrenn's was the only tent the company used regularly. Sielaire had put herself in charge of its erection after seeing Ayrenn sluggishly pitching it long after sunset, having spent the more productive hours seeing to the needs and emotional well being of her people. Ayrenn had continued to help her dismantle it in the morning, but Sie prefered to see to the actual packing herself- it made set up that much easier when she knew where all the pieces were.

It also gave her an excuse for lingering near the Queen's tent in the mornings. She stationed herself at the tent flap when her guard shift was over. But on nights like the last, she did not spend the rest of the night outside. Those mornings, if Sielaire overslept and woke to sounds of the others already breaking camp, she would rise and dress and start taking the tent apart from the inside out. Ayrenn would awaken to chilled air, and drowsily tempt her back to the shared bedroll. Sometimes it even worked.

Ayrenn watched as the battlereeve's ears darkened, and pulled the scent of the morning air into her lungs, over her tongue and deep into her nose and throat. Since she'd presented, she'd been slowly getting better at identifying the new smells and sensations her body had been awakened too, and  _just there_  along with the smell of breakfast and achor of dozens of alphas relieving themselves in the woods, was an intoxicatingly familiar musky arousal.

" _Sielaire_ …"

Her eyes shot up, flashing with a hint of emotion as she looked Ayrenn over. Ayrenn wasn't sure why she'd said it outloud, she wasn't sure she even meant to. She peered down at her lover, locked in her gaze, as Sielaire's eyes lowered to where her lip was caught between her teeth. Sielaire stood and hefted the bundles over her shoulders, motioning with her chin for Ayrenn to lead the way. Ayrenn took a few steps back, but fell into step beside Sielaire instead, finding she wasn't quite ready to part with her lover yet this morning.

Sielaire carried her barely used sleeping roll and the bundle of Ayrenn's tent to the nearest supply wagon, where Andralda stood with the reins of Sielaire's horse.

Sielaire quietly eyed the fellow Alpha, the blacksmith who had been travelling with the company. She was square and muscular, with dark shorn hair, and Sielaire still broiled at the image of Ayrenn turning to her that day. But despite Andralda's attractiveness, it was  _her_  Ayrenn strolled beside. Sielaire knew she had no reason to be jealous, and her inner Alpha preened.

"I'll see you later," Ayrenn assured softly, voice still thick with emotion, as she continued on her way to Urcelmo, positive Sielaire could smell her scent just as easily as Ayrenn had her's.

"She smells of you," Andralda stated quietly as soon as Ayrenn was out of earshot.

Sielaire grabbed the reins and turned her shoulder to the other alpha as she greeted her horse and prepared to mount. She heard Andralda sigh, exasperated.

"I don't mean you smell of sex- any beta with half a head on their shoulders would know that yall had been together."

Sielaire mounted her horse with practiced ease before turning back to the woman, who appeared to be waiting for some sort of answer.

Andralda took a tired breath and rolled her eyes at the battlereeve, "Almost as if you had bonded?"

Sielaire nearly dropped her reins at the unexpected accusation, "No!" Her eyes danced around the clearing, thankful nobody seemed to be paying the two of them any attention. Still, she leaned down in the saddle and continued in a hushed but final tone, "No… she's  _The Queen_. I can't… _If_ she chooses a mate, it'd be someone Noble, of her station-"

Andralda quirked an unimpressed eyebrow, "So? You're our best battlemage… and that hardly matters anyway, since she looks at you like you painted the stars and hung her the moon…" Sielaire stammered at the unexpected praise, shaking her head to deny it. But Andralda continued, mumbling just loud enough for her to hear- "or rather like  _you're_  the one who  _is hung._ "

Before the situation could escalate, Ayrenn called out for Sielaire to join her. Sielaire turned to glare at Andralda as she rode away, but the curious alpha just chuckled softly, unperturbed by her silent intimidation. Sielaire might be a powerful mage and in co-command of the Queen’s forces, but Andralda was no soldier. The stormy battlereeve could no more reprimand her than she could Ayrenn.

* * *

 

As ambush attempts ramped up, Sielaire went from guarding Ayrenn's tent to sleeping inside of it… "for protection". The added risk weighed heavily on Sielaire, but the danger didn't deter Ayrenn's courtship. She delighted in sleeping and waking in the safety of Sielaire's arms. The added privacy seemed to be helping Sie open up, like she had that night in the burnt-out chapel. Ayrenn thought she might be melting through the warrior's defenses… though not completely... Sie still steadfastly refused to knot her, and although Ayrenn was out of her heat and didn't  _need_  it, Sie's delay made her hunger to know the feeling, and deepen their connection.

And she wasn't used to people denying her requests, especially when by all indications they wanted the same.

Out in the open, Sie still held herself deliberately separate from Ayrenn. From bits of conversation she had strung together, Ayrenn suspected she believed herself unworthy. It broke Ayrenn's heart, but pushed her to prove her love harder. She'd told Sie she loves her before, many times... in the throws of passion, but became determined to work the words in more often.  _If she hears it enough,_ Ayrenn thought _, surely she'll come to believe it._

 


	2. Consummation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (I've decided to break this fic into smaller chapters, and add on the additional arcs/chapters, both posted and unposted, here, for organizational reasons. This is previously posted, and I'll note the chapter where new content starts.)

 

And so things continued. As the campaign took a turn toward war, Ayrenn's personal crusade continued. The two spent most nights together, and most days "stealing" glances at each other so obviously that eventually the company refused to pretend there was anything 'secret' about the affair. Sielaire suspected Andralda's involvement in the latter.

Ayrenn's attention heightened the notice Sielaire received among the battlereeves, but Sie's skill in combat cemented nearly everyone's respect for her. And though many understood the depths of Ayrenn's affections, Sielaire was not among their number.

* * *

It was the evening before their largest battle yet, and Urcelmo and Sie were going over their plans with few of the greener battlereeves. They sat clustered together in the war tent, maps of the surrounding areas laid out before them. Kaeir, freshly commissioned out of Firsthold, was having trouble understanding a particular flanking maneuver. About the third time around the same explanation, Ayrenn had slipped out. Sie noted her departure and wished she could join her, this was taking… longer than planned, and she could think of better ways to spend the evening.

So Sie was not expecting Ayrenn's return with a tray of freshly brewed tea. She'd been studying the map when Urcelmo stood and called for Kaeir and the others to follow him outside, "Maybe running the maneuver in person will help it click." And so was unaware that Ayrenn had subtly dismissed the others.

Ayrenn set a cup of the still-steaming brew down in front of Sie, who distractedly took a sip before realizing what it was.

Sie's attention snapped fully to Ayrenn with a seemingly blank glare, Ayrenn chuckling softly at what she knew to be a surprised, maybe even awestruck expression.

"Dibella's Kiss, with a half spoon of honey," Ayrenn explained, bringing her own, much more sweetened cup to her lips.

"It's just the way I like it," Sie whispered.

She sounded so far away,  _where have you gone my dear?_  Ayrenn nodded reassuringly, Sie seemed... shocked she had remembered. As happy as the praise made Ayrenn, the surprise still saddened her,  _Has no one ever served her tea before?_

"Thank you," Sie breathed after a few moments, gracing her with a small smile.

"No problem, my love," Ayrenn smiled and pressed a kiss to Sie's bare forehead, brushing the wayward tendrils of her hair with gentle fingers.

Sie finished her tea, but her mind was thousands of miles away, back in Shimmerene. To those soft years between her parents' heats, full of gentle looks and shared burdens that she hadn't appreciated in her naive youth. And as she stood and slowly led Ayrenn back to their tent she doesn't wonder how or if Ayrenn could feel so about her. She realized it was true, she believed her, she  _felt_  it, and the walls around her own heart melt.

That night when they were making love, Ayrenn again grew needy.

" _More_ , Sie," she mewled between pants, fingers grasping at Sie's ass, " _please_ ,  _all_  of you..."

"Ay, Renn, I... want to, too, but… pregnancy? You can't bring children into…  _this_. And I'm not on any-"

"I'll talk to the chemist, Sie,  _I promise_. I'll take care of it, I know this isn't the right time for children, I know. I just want  _you_. Please."

Even as she spoke, Sie began to amp up the intensity of her movements at the mere thought of giving in to what she'd been denying them. Renn's promise made her a little wild. The thought of truly letting go was so liberating, Sie's magic flared around them as she grinded against her lover. The glowing aura and arcing sparks only seemed to excite Renn more, and soon her own blue swirls entwined with Sie's green.

Sie often teased Renn with gentle nibbles, but her teeth were front and center in her lovemaking tonight, taking a dusky nipple between her teeth, biting at her shoulder, her neck, her thigh… Ayrenn  _loved_ it. Sie was always so in control of herself, and the feel of Sie's teeth on her skin always makes her feel like Sie has lost that cool composure, that she can be driven just as wild with want as Ayrenn was for her.

Sie surged into Renn and knew her knot was already forming. Unlike usual when she could spare a few moments of full thrusting before resuming careful control, she can only thrust once before she's hurriedly asking Ayrenn " _are you sure?_ "

Ayrenn nodded frantically and locked her legs around Sie's hips. She lives for those few moments when Sie seems briefly unrestrained, and hated to waste even a second of them on something as banal as words. But she knew it was important to Sie, and the fact that she'd even ask is one of the reasons she loves her so. So she spared the breath to answer as clearly as she could manage, " _yes- a thousands times yes, forever._ "

Sie bucked into her, and for the first time, Ayrenn felt her fullness... and she felt complete. And Sie's mouth was back on her chest, and as she flew over the edge she didn't even feel the teeth break the skin over her heart.

Instead, Ayrenn felt Sie's weight collapse on to her, their sweat-slicked bodies still tingly with magic and fissures of passion, and she nestled into the fullness. She could feel the slowing spasms of her lover inside her, locked together as they were, and imagined their juices sealed inside of her. She blushed and shook away the image. And as she stroked Sie's back, she found sleep in her exhaustion.

Sie was spent. She hadn't knotted with anyone since prior to joining the army,  _but that… had been nothing like this_.

Despite their situation, she felt safe in Ayrenn's arms, and swiftly joined her lover in sleep.

 _It can't be morning already_ , Sie groaned and scrunched her eyelids tighter in a failed attempt to block out the cool light that shined beyond them. But it wasn't morning. It couldn't have been more than an hour since they'd collapsed together.  _Something is-_

Sie's eyes flew open, instantly falling on the magical teal glow of a glyph, glowing incessantly. Two glyphs, she realized. One on Ayrenn's chest, right over her heart, centered on the still-healing mark Sie had left there… with her teeth. The other, on Sie's own chest, it's perfect match, its mate.

Dread rises in Sielaire.  _We so did not talk about_ this  _step_... But in quick succession, her Alpha roared with pride. She was looking at Ayrenn, she was looking at  _her mate_ , and that thought triumphed as she stirred back to life from where she was still sunk deep in her lover.

Ayrenn awoke to a novel feeling, her arms tightening in response to Sie's intimate reawakening.

She opened her eyes to see the warring expressions on Sie's face, before noticing the glyphs herself.

Ayrenn had never seen a mating glyph in person before, at least not from up close, but there was no doubt in her mind that that's what she was looking at right now.  _They were mated_.  _Bonded. For life and beyond_. She was elated, but Sie was worrying,  _probably about me._

"When I said you were  _stuck_ with me forever, I didn't mean quite this literally… but I think I could get used to it," She teased as she wiggled her hips, reaching for Sie and pulling her down for a quick kiss.

"... forever…" Sie's eyes glazed over, lost in daydreams of future years, and she was still stunned… but she was  _happy_.

"Yes,  _Sie…_ " Ayrenn was looking back up at her adoringly, stroking her ear, teeth on her own lip, and their glyphs pulsed so hard they  _shined_...

Sie shifted their positions, though not by much as they were quite literally still stuck together from the earlier knotting, and with increasingly passionate kisses, she was pumping against Ayrenn again, hard, her knot feeling plump and full between them, adding delicious pressure to the nerves along her clit and this time when they came, Ayrenn sunk her teeth into Sie, where her copy of the glyph glowed with the pulse of her mate.

 


	3. Countered

In the full light of morning, Sie was troubled.

They hadn't planned on  _this_. Sie hadn't taken any blockers, they had used no protections... a pregnancy was imminent. Her hand rested heavily on Ayrenn's belly where she still slept, and Sie tried to not imagine it round and firm... Before they had mated, Ayrenn had said she'd see to preventing it. They were on the same page- the frontline was no place for babies. But Ayrenn was still new to being omega, and Sie doubted she fully understood the weight of their actions... Sie cursed her own lack of control, lack of respect.  _Who was she, a pawn, to take the Queen?_

Ayrenn felt the weight of Sie's palm on her belly, and covered her mate's hand with her own.  _She'll need to see to this soon_ , she knew, before her now-mated inner omega received the hormonal cue that her mate's seed took root.  _Her mate_ , Ayrenn smiled at the thought, and imagined a little Sie, all pouty and serious, wide green eyes with that fire smouldering below the surface.  _She would be absolutely ador-_

**_FWE-BOOM!_ **

The ground shook as an ear-ringing explosion hit. Sielaire was instantly over Ayrenn, protecting them both with a magical shield as she cradled Ayrenn's head to her chest. As the spike of adrenaline leveled out, they heard the frantic call to arms as Urcelmo rallied the troops.

They scrambled for their clothes, eyes glued to each other as they hastily dressed. Ayrenn frowned upon noticing their glyphs were no longer visible, their magical glow extinguished with the couple's ardor. After pulling her crowned helm on she touched her fingers to her lips and then to Sie's heart, where the mark would be when visible. Sie slung her scabbard on and pulled Ayrenn close, mirroring the gesture back before capturing Ayrenn's lips with her own.

"Be safe, my love," Ayrenn ordered.

"I promise," Sielaire smirked in response.

They rushed into battle, not quite ready. What prep time their scouts had granted them had been spent mating. Urcelmo had sent Kaeir's regiment to sneak around the backside of the pact's encampment to flush out the battlemages they suspected to be in position on their far flank. It would be a dangerous climb through the cliffs to make sure they approached from the right angle. But it would cut off the escape routes and flush their enemies out into the open, toward the larger concentration of Ayrenn's forces. Ayrenn's battlemages and a few squads of ranged archers held a defensive line between the battleground and their supply wagons. A few non fighting tradespeople, like Andralda, some clerics and healers and younger pages, saw to the troop's animals and the injured from this protected area. But the ranged fighters could offer support to the front lines and prevent calamity to the camp if they were outflanked.

Ayrenn was often positioned directly between the frontline of infantry and these ranged forces, where her magically-amplified voice could be easily heard. And where every one of her troops had a chance to see her, and feel the solidarity that came with keeping each other safe. If the tide of battle did get out of hand, Sielaire was always nearby, and could wreck down waves of devastation to push enemy forces back, giving everyone time to regroup.

So far their tactics had worked wonderfully, but recent skirmishes had seen them pitted against increasingly creative counters to their maneuvers. And so it was vital to have early success by Kaeir's platoon of forces  _before_ Sielaire needed to be utilized.

* * *

It was mid-morning, the field churned to mud and the grounds reeking of blood and sweat and the burn of magic when Sielaire spotted Earilas, Kaeir's second in command, breaking from the tree line. She downed the Argonian snaking its way toward Ayrenn and turned her attention back to the treeline, expecting to see the rest of the contingent following Earilas out of cover.

But either there had been nobody hidden in the strategic spot, or something had gone horribly wrong, because Earilas raced toward them alone.

Sie's eyes found Ayrenn nearby- she was fully in command of the situation here, beautiful in her ferocity, awe-inspiring, and Sie had no desire to interrupt her. But Earilas is waving them down, and so Sie falls back, motioning Urcelmo to take her position as Ayrenn's backup. Sie signals a handful of mages and archers to follow her and they race toward the treeline, where they intercept the haggard second.

"We came through the pass and started searching the area, and then people just froze mid-step, with no warning, no sound, nothing,"  _hidden glyph traps, so the enemy mages_ were  _there._  "I think the entire platoon is caught! We need mages-"

"The pass? Kaeir was supposed to lead them over the ridge," one of the archers scoffed.

"Keep your guard up, stay together," Sielaire ordered, leading the small group back toward the tree line as fast as possible. A tenth of Ayrenn's forces was too much to risk losing, they needed to extract the soldiers before whoever set the traps for them came back.

They were a heading up the incline when all hell broke loose. The entrapped soldiers poured out of a wide stretch of the tree line, screaming, Kaeir on his horse near the center, leading the charge with wild eyes.

The archer on her right took aim and Sielaire barely had time to yell "hold fire." Their cohorts weren't charging them, they were retreating, and  _terrified_. Sielaire heard the gasps of the mages as night poured out from between the trees. Inky blackness that crawled over the ground toward them in a sprawling, squirming mass a half-mile wide. Lumbering toward them like a writhing mass of disembodied limbs cloaked in darkness.

The archer she had kept from murdering Kaeir let fly her arrow out of nervousness, and they watched as it arced through the sky and pierced the inky shadow... which flowed onward unhindered.

Sie summoned up her magic, it was time for a Tempest.

Kaeir's footsoldiers were converging toward their location, racing ahead of the dark horror. Sie timed her build-up, she needed maximum force to be unleashed between the backs of the soldiers and before the front of the pursuing force, hopefully pushing it back onto itself and whoever commanded it from within the trees.

The mages to her sides helped the slower and injured soldiers with spurts of spells, as the archers looked on helplessly. Taking stock of who was where, Sielaire released, and the Tempest roared up the incline like the strongest autumn storm. At first, it appeared to be working, as dirt and debris from the field was thrown up in a huge dust cloud and the shadow's progress stopped as the Tempest bared down on it. The soldiers crowded around, and turned to watch the destruction of the thing they had fled.

But then, over the squall and scared murmurs, Sielaire heard a dreaded  _pop_.

"Shields!" She screamed into the chaos, as every ounce of magic in the sky suddenly shifted and rebounded against itself. "Take cover!" She ordered the winded soldiers, dividing them with a quick nod into groups clustered around each of the other mages. She summoned her own shield as well, but already knew her reserves were too low. The mages she had brought were full of potential, but still young, having left the stronger ones watching over Ayrenn. Their shielding abilities were minimal and would never hold up against her rebounded Tempest.

Sie glanced back toward the treeline, the shadow was nowhere to be seen.

_An illusion._

_No._

_A trap._

_And she had fallen for it perfectly._

In the moment before the squalor hit them, Sie cast her own shield over the others. She was surprised she even had the energy to do so, wondering where the sudden increase in her reservoir had come from. Still, she knew her's wouldn't hold. But it would buy them time to strengthen their own.

As the magic of her shield cracked and fractured, Sie hoped Ayrenn wouldn't be the one left paying the cost.


	4. Chemistry

Ayrenn's sword sliced through the dirt-caked neck of the Nord, their head hitting the blood-soaked ground with a squelching thud. The air left Ayrenn's lungs in steady breaths as her eyes took in her immediate surroundings. She cleaned her blade on the tunic of the headless body still on its knees in front of her. With a shove of her boot, the body toppled over as Ayrenn surveyed the battlefield.

They were victorious.

She sheathed her sword with all the drama of a showmaster, wide-set stance emanating power. Cheers erupted as Ayrenn stood proudly, a cocky smile lighting up her blood and dirt smattered face. She turned to find Sie, but her eyes land first on Urcelmo. They slid past him. To each mounted battlereeve, to the standard-bearers, then the mages, the archers.

Back to Urcelmo.  _Where is Sie?_  She wants to ask, but Urcelmo is looking back over toward camp, and despite their resounding victory, worry shrouds his face.  _Where is her mate?_

There was a flurry of activity at the camp, an entire platoon milled around the large tent. Most were the infantry sent to flank the ridge, but Ayrenn spotted a few mages and archers- not typically ones to be injured. And off to the side, a respectful distance from the soldiers, stood Andralda, holding the reins of a familiar war horse.

"Sielaire!" with the magnification spell still amplifying her voice, her scream of anguish echoed across the blood-strewn valley. The cheers abruptly cut off.

Ayrenn took a stumbling step toward the camp. She approached the back of helms and drooped shoulders. As she neared the place where the field medics were set up, she didn't notice how everyone turned away from her, avoided eye contact.

"She took most of the blow herself, gave the other mages long enough to fortify against what was left of that Tempest once it ripped through her.  _She_  saved them, she saved  _us_. She was a hero," she heard Earilas reporting to Kaeir.

They moved out of her way like a wake. And then she saw her. Lying on her back on the table, a healer on either side, was Sielaire. Unconscious even as the plethora of scrapes and bruises knit back together and faded, the smears of blood and dirt on her soaked armor told the story of her batterment.

She wasn't dead. Ayrenn didn't have to touch her clammy skin to know a pulse still beat there, but she did anyway. The healers conferred, and after a few more spurts of magic, stepped away.

"Where are you going?" The question came out as order and the two stepped back into place nervously.

"We've done all we can, your Majesty. This happens sometimes. She'll either wake up on her own or..."

Ayrenn reached forward with her own magic, and it snaked over her mate lovingly but found nothing to heal, and fell away.

* * *

The sun set as Ayrenn stood there, staring down at Sielaire. The crowd had slowly trickled away when it became apparent Ayrenn had no desire to address her army, and she was left in respectful silence.

"Sie, wake up, my love." Ayrenn pleaded as she brushed the hair off her mate's forehead. She stroked her ears, held her hands, pressed her face against Sie's. "Sielaire… wake up… I… I order you to wake up," but the response was the same. Nothing.

Urcelmo came and draped a cloak over her shoulders. He must have left because he and Andralda returned some time later with Ayrenn and Sielaire's bedrolls and made a pallet for her here. She succumbed to sleep sometime in the predawn hours, just as the first birds began to sing.

The next day, Ayrenn woke up cold and alone. And determined.

She sent Urcelmo to gather every person with an ounce of restorative ability from within both their ranks and the surrounding countryside. For the next two days Ayrenn stood over Sie as a stream of people came and went from the tent, none successful. She winced at leechers and rolled her eyes at shamans and clerics and cooed at the baby in the nursemaid's arms while the woman rubbed her great grandmother's secret cure-all salve on Sielaire's forehead. And between each visit Ayrenn would try again on her own. But still Sielaire slept.

"I've seen this a few times before," the chemist said softly, her fingers to Sie's wrist.

She wasn't the first to say something similar, but Ayrenn had seen the effects of her work before. Knew the chemist's skill was hard earned, that she had years of loyal service under her belt.  _If anyone could help_ … "Do you know how to wake her?"

"Time alone may be enough, but there might be a draught… It takes days to prepare and I'm not sure how effective it will be. I saw it brewed a handful of times and administered once while in my apprenticeship, though it  _was_ successful in that instance."

"What of the other times?"

The chemist winced, "The waste… The body needs... fuel, like a fire needs logs, for the energy to heal itself. The energy to survive. We need air to breathe, water to drink, food to vitalize, and shelter to keep the elements from snuffing us out like candles. If she cannot eat, cannot drink… she dies."

Ayrenn was already shaking her head, "I'll do whatever it takes, it is…  _imperative_ , that she survives. The future of the dominion lies with her." Ayrenn shot the chemist with a meaningful look until her eyes grew wide with apparent understanding.

"I see then, yes. Clean water, a few sips an hour, fresh broth every few. Keep the air circulated, keep the sick away. She'll need fresh linens regularly if you're getting enough liquids into her stomach. It will take me three days to brew, and first I must gather all the required elements… that could take another three or four, less if I had an assistant, more if we're planning on relocating."

Ayrenn looked away from her and back down to Sielaire, and nodded her understanding. "I'll take care of her, you may have whoever you need, we'll be staying here until this is resolved."

"Yes Your Majesty. If that is all, I'll get started," she bowed and waited to be dismissed and suddenly Ayrenn remembered.

_The chemist. Her promise… Sielaire…._

"Will this save her?" Ayrenn demanded, voice cracking.

The chemist looked away, unwilling to provide false hope and absolutes. "I will give it my undivided attention."

Ayrenn trembled with indecision.

"Then go," If this was the only chance at saving Sielaire, Ayrenn knew she would pay any price.

* * *

They buried their dead.

They burned the others.

They didn't break camp.

Ayrenn dribbled water and broth down Sie's throat… and cried. Andralda visited and the two of them talked softly. Urcelmo came to give her daily reports and didn't leave until he had convinced her to sleep.

Ayrenn dreamed of their baby, grown and discovering a secret cave in Shimmerene, the magic flowing out of her a perfect match to the glowing hue of their bond glyphs. The thought came to her, heavy and enlightening all at once: for even if she never saw that glow again, she knew part of Sielaire lived on, that the time they shared had at least given her this, even if it took everything else.

She knew she still had time, but the chemist was focused on the draught. So in her waking hours she pushed the thought aside. She spent her days fighting for Sielaire, all other duties delegated to Urcelmo and the other battlereeves. Sometimes it felt like she kept Sie alive on sheer willpower alone. But she knew without a doubt, that Sielaire would have done the same for her. Beyond love, beyond sharing pleasure, and creating life, this was the bond. Two futures, entwined so tight, they were now forged into a single entity. The loss of one would leave the other a twisted shadow of the iron it was before, brittle and wretched.

* * *

Ayrenn stepped aside as the chemist, the two healers she'd recruited to assist her, and Andralda adjusted Sielaire to deliver the draught. Urcelmo stood by Ayrenn's side, silent support as she clung to him. Earilas leaned on the post at the entrance, ready to relay updates to a crowd of soldiers milling about just within earshot.

They poured the thick liquid into Sielaire in small doses, working her throat carefully until it was all down. They were just laying her back down when a bolt of energy knocked Andralda to the floor. Urcelmo pulled Ayrenn behind him, and Earilas drew his own weapon even as the magic sputtered and fizzled out harmlessly. Another healer stumbled as Sielaire struggled in the bed. The chemist pushed her back down as Sielaire screamed, voice raspy and hoarse, "Ayrenn!"

The Queen flung herself from between the two guarding her, flying towards her mate. Sie's wild eyes locked on her instantly and the fight drained out of her just as quickly. Ayrenn pressed her face to Sielaire's, the latter's breath coming in shaky, uneven draws, her eyes drooping, struggling to focus on her mate. "I'm here my love, I'm here, we're okay." She felt Sie's arm haltingly move between them, pressing weakly against Ayrenn's chest, and then her own, where their bond marks were hidden. "Yes, you're safe, just like you promised," Ayrenn sniffled through a chuff of laughter, wiping away her quickly forming tears. Sielaire's eyes shuttered closed as Ayrenn continued to hold her and whisper soft encouragements while peppering her face with little pecks. Ayrenn heard a cheer erupt from outside the tent, and looked up to find Earilas missing. Urcelmo helping Andralda off the dirt.

The chemist nodded, slapping the healers on the back as each of them held out supplies for Ayrenn. A decanter of water, another bowl of broth.

"Anything but broth," Sielaire whined. The healer's face fell but the rest of the room chuckled.

"You need food dear, you might be able to stomach some applesau-"

"Broth is fine," Sie corrected hastily, though her voice was just as weak, garnering a few odd looks among the others as they filed out and left Ayrenn to her self-imposed duty.

Ayrenn slept well for the first time in over a week, even if it was only in short bursts. Sie's familiar warmth at her side more comforting than the plushest of beds. When they woke again to first light, Ayrenn could already feel the strength returning as Sielaire held her close as they cuddled.

Sielaire took a deep breath, her face pressed into Ayrenn's hair as her arms wrapped tighter around her mate. She knew Ayrenn's scent as she knew the curve of her sword, but "you smell different."

Ayrenn stilled, glad Sielaire couldn't see her face. Andra had said the same the day before, and Ayrenn had realized then... that the thought of ending her possible pregnancy had gone from "deal with it later" to "prevent at all costs." Her inner omega knew she was pregnant with her mate's young, and  _nothing_  would stop her from keeping her babies safe- not her own desires, not the needs of a nation, not even the wishes of said mate. She would die protecting them.  _Her,_ her mind's eye pictured, seeing the girl in the cave, though only the teal of her magic stood out with any clarity.  _Theirs_.

She schooled her features, calmed the staccato beat of her heart, and shrugged with practiced indifference, "Andralda said we smell mated."

Sielaire barked out a single laugh and smiled cheesily,  _that's right, they were mated now. Bonded forever._ Nothing  _would tear them apart._

But plenty of things would come to try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is the previous end of "Consummation")


	5. Conception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Start of previously posted "Conception")

_She's never quiet_ , Sie thought to herself as she watched Ayrenn sleep. She leaned on her elbow on their layered sleeping rolls, their legs still entwined. Their tent was lit only by the soft glow of their bonding glyphs, and the camp outside was quiet, only the occasional muffled murmur of guards and restless horses broke the silence.

Ayrenn snored again, a sort of gurgle that brought a smile to Sie's eyes.  _She's ridiculous._  She watched as beads of moisture formed on her mate's lips… lips that had done fantastic, unspeakable things hours earlier. Sie shook off a shiver as the bolt of desire arced through her and felt the tips of her ears warm at the memory.

Since Sie had been taking 'Omega's Respite,' Ayrenn had gotten a little more...  _creative_ with their lovemaking. In addition to helping alleviate the symptoms of rut, the suppressant renders alphas infertile and inhibits knot formation. Ayrenn had been thankfully receptive of  _Respite's_ effect on Sie's body, though Sie realized now she should have never doubted her.

Things were going better outside the thick canvas walls of their tent as well. Their campaign was going great, and they were making substantial progress on their journey. Ayrenn had also seemed more restrained on the battlefield lately… at least sometimes.

Oh she was still their fearsome, undaunted, leader. But she'd been getting better at delegation. Sie chuffed at the memory of Ayrenn commanding Kaeir to meet a band of white-flag waving men in the middle of an open field. He'd tried to get Earilas to go in his place, weary of a trap, but Ayrenn had announced sending two mounted officers would have been an unnecessary provocation, and ordered Kaeir outright. It had turned out fine, but every person there had known the risk, and why she had deferred it to him. Sielaire had forgiven the rookie's mistake for the sake of troop morale, but Ayrenn had not yet let the young officer off the hook for his role in "almost getting Sie killed."

It was one of the many ways Ayrenn had affirmed her relationship with Sielaire since their bonding. Ayrenn and the rest of the company have dropped the pretense of their relationship being secret, but it still caught Sie off guard sometimes. Despite Ayrenn's adamant reassurances, and casual comments from Andralda and Urcelmo about Ayrenn and Sie's synergy, this still felt like something she didn't deserve. She wouldn't change it, she loves Ayrenn, but she couldn't manage to quiet the part of her that was still waiting for the other to shoe to drop.

 

And then it did.

It was midday and they had stopped for a short rest at quiet brook running alongside a clearing. Ayrenn had led her horse to the bank for a drink while Sielaire and few dozen other guards went to survey the area immediately surrounding the clearing. So Sielaire had approached Ayrenn from the shadows of the underbrush before her, instead of her back, where the rest of the company stretched and milled about.

She had raised her face to the sun, all shades of golden beauty that had left Sielaire momentarily stunned. Then an all too familiar look had transformed Ayrenn's face as she leaned a shoulder against her mount. It was one of pure devotion, awe,  _love_.

But Ayrenn wasn't looking at her, didn't even know she was there, no.

Her focus was downward, to where her hands cradled and stroked her abdomen, pulling the fabric of her gown taut enough that Sielaire could  _just_  make out the gentle swell of pregnancy.

At the sound of someone approaching from the woods Ayrenn adjusted her stance instantly. She relaxed for a fraction of a second upon seeing Sielaire emerge before her, but then noticed the darkened furrow of her lover's brow as she stormed across the water.

Sielaire grabbed Ayrenn's arm, and turned towards the treeline. Ayrenn dug her heels in as a matter of principal, but when Sie tightened her grip and turned her glare back on her, Ayrenn saw more than anger.

The subtle hurt hidden in those eyes made her step forward, already anticipating the subject they would be discussing as soon as they were out of earshot of the others.

"You said you  _had taken care of it_ ," Sielaire said, tension turning her words to jabs.

"I want to take care of it," Ayrenn replied evenly.

Sielaire  _growled_ , shook her head. Her eyes were on Ayrenn's stomach. She felt  _sick_ , but she wanted to press her ear there and see if she could make out the heartbeats. The longing must have shown, because Ayrenn grabbed onto it like a lifeline.

"Don't  _you_  want this too?"

Sie could  _see_  them,  _a little family of three? four? safe … seated around the dinner table at the house she grew up in..._

But that's not their  _now,_  not even their future.

"It doesn't matter what I  _want_ ," Sielaire ground out. Ayrenn's face fell at the steel resolve in her voice. "I will not aid you in putting a child, this child,  _our_ child in harm's way, and if I know you at all I  _know_ you feel the same."

 _But fuck_ , Sielaire realized,  _if she's pregnant, then it's a bond baby_ , and Sie's heart leapt despite the rush in which she had secured  _Respite_  the day after their rushed bonding.  _No wait_ , she recalled,  _not the next day.._. She had been unconscious for over a week… Ayrenn by her side. ... _fuck._

And it was too late now, to implement any termination. Oh physically possible, aye, and trauma might induce the same result, but she couldn't bear to call for that deliberately. Having seen the look on Ayrenn's face… Sielaire knew the omega would fight with everything it had to protect the pup, and her alpha would respond in kind. Protecting her mate. Protecting their offspring.

And as much as she longed to see it- Ayrenn with a babe on each hip, that look of love overflowing from worn, yet still bright eyes- it didn't change the fact that this was not a good time. They couldn't haul an infant around on this campaign, much less two or gods' forbid,  _more_.

Sielaire shook her head and grimaced, turning away from Ayrenn.

All those concerns paled in comparison… to Ayrenn having  _ **lied**_ to her. She'd  _broken a promise_ , made in lust maybe, but reaffirmed again and again outside it. Ayrenn knew Sielaire would have never agreed to knot her without it, and though she'd been ordered around both playfully and petulantly, but  _this_ rang out as abuse. She felt  _used_.  _Deceived_ , all so the Queen could get what she wanted, like she always did. Sielaire had sworn her allegiance, but this reeked of  _betrayal_ , and that overshadowed any joy this revelation may have brought.

"You're going home, you're leaving the front line-"

Whatever guilt plagued Ayrenn dissolved in an instant,  _how dare she talk to me like that?_

"You want me to travel all the way home for the birth and then turn ar-"

"To raise our children!"

 _Oho, no. She did not just imply I was going to be some simpering stay-at-home omega_ , " _We'll_  raise them  _together_."

"Oh, so we're  _both_  going home?"

"No, of course not, we're needed here." Ayrenn was vaguely aware that their heated argument was drawing attention from the troops.

"You cannot raise a child in a war zone!"

"It's hardly an uncommon occurrence," Ayrenn ground out, determined to appear their civil, level-headed leader even if her mate seemed bent on causing a scene.

"Not with a  _royal_ child-" The fight evaporated from Sielaire as fast as a grounded charge, "Oh. Or is this not one?" She continued in a quiet, defeated tone, "Did you leave bastards in High Rock too? All over Tamriel?"

" _SIE_ -" Ayrenn's composure snapped at the jarring accusation, but Sielaire continued her frantic diatribe as if she hadn't made a sound.

Her hands were clenched at her sides, and her green eyes stared into the distance, unfocused. "I cannot raise them, cannot nurse having not been pregnant. I can keep them safe, cared for. But if you don't wish for anyone to know… of this transgression… I'll take my leave. I'll have to find a wet nurse…"

"Sie! We are MATED," Ayrenn pounded her fist over her own heart, scared to touch Sie as she retreated into herself but desperate to remind her of their bond.

Sie glanced only briefly toward the source of the sound, "you'll have to cover that up-"

" _Never_. Sie, listen to me! We are a family. You are my mate. We'll raise them together, here, with us, wherever.  _This_   _child will bear our names_ , this is no bastard, we will wed-"

"When, Ayrenn?!" Sielaire barked out a bitter laugh, motioning helplessly to the wilderness that surrounded them.  _Was she so blind to reality? This wasn't some children's game, this was their lives._

"-we'll keep them safe-"

"You literally cannot get everything you want!"

"Is that what you think this is about?!"

"When is it not!"

"Just- shut up!" Ayrenn snapped, heart bleeding as she fell back into the authoritative tone of her Queenly orders.

Sie straightened, hands clasped behind her back, in a mocking imitation of a green recruit awaiting their first orders. The furrow of her brow as she glared-  _silently -_ up at her superior, was loud enough to make Ayrenn aware of what she'd just done.

With a huff she turned back to her horse and mounted without looking at Sielaire, "We have other duties to attend to now, this is a conversation that can be resolved later.  _In private_."

The verbal nod sent Sielaire's eyes shifting back the remainder of the troop, surprised to see a good portion of them hurriedly looking away.


	6. Confusion

The battalion's conflict continued with little progress.

As did theirs.

Their travels were terse and rife with a tension wholly different than the times before. Stolen glances at the other not born of interest and desire, but worry... and guilt.

For the first time their bed rolls remained separate inside the canvas walls of their tent, Sielaire's pulled close to the door. She sat awake most nights after her guard shift and watched the rise and fall of Ayrenn's chest, the omega's hand always cradled protectively around her slowly growing middle.

She was terrified of losing them both.

* * *

Andralda could guess what was on the battlereeve's mind.

The blacksmith had noticed Ayrenn shifting uncomfortably in her armor last week. When she had approached the Queen about it, Ayrenn had quietly asked if Andra could add a few inches to her belt, subtly letting out the waistline. When she'd taken the piece off, Andra had gotten a good look at her. She was as attractive as ever- not that Andra was stupid enough to try anything, A/O dynamics be damned. The Queen and her Battlereeve were as good as mated in Andra's book, and she'd have no part in coming between the two women she considered … if not quite friends, then amicable acquaintances. But with the thick armored belt removed, the shift in Ayrenn's scent some months ago was suddenly explained.

Andra wasn't sure if the pregnancy was what drove the Battlereeve to drinking out here alone by the dying light of the campfire, or if it was something more. But since the couple's quarrel, they had made for crappy company. They'd ceased their easy-going chats while on the road and refused to spar together after making camp. Sielaire's glares and crackling aura had been enough to scare off anyone who might have thought to appease Ayrenn's boredom, but Sie's domination of the sparring ring during Ayrenn's heat had dried up her own pool of potential challengers as well. They'd been as fierce and fearsome in combat as ever, but Sie was acting like a ogre off the battlefield as well.

"Must be rough," Andra said as she plopped down on the dirt next to Sielaire.

Sie grunted in agreement but didn't look away from the flames, playing with the ring tip of her scarf in one hand, and slowly swirling a nearly empty mug in the other.

"-having a woman who'd realign the heavens for you."

Sie stilled, "Wat'er you talkin' about now..."

"Never thought you'd be the type to repay such devotion with this level of vitriol."

" _Devotion_? The only comen- mitten- mitment she shown is to 'er lies," Sie slurred. She frowned and peeked into the mug as if unsure what she'd find there.

"Ah yeah, it must have been 'her lies' she had half the region in a tizzy over. Stuck to  _her lies'_  side for nearly a week, trickling water and broth down their throat like a babe, sleeping curled around their body with tears streaming down her face as she exhausted every ounce of magic she could find trying to heal…. her lies."

Sie looks  _surprised? Confused? Drunk as fuck and still stoic as ever. Hmm.. Maybe she's just so drunk she can't see straight._  Andra took the mug from her and set its aside, "Who'd you think had kept ya alive, ya dolt?"

"The… the healers?"

"The healers didn't know what the fuck to do with you, they'd given up. Ayrenn pressed them into the chemist's service because she was the only one who had any idea of what to do, and even then, by the end of the week she looked like a zombie too, obsessing over her brew until her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was a grimey mess. But nobody sleeps when the Queen doesn't sleep, not till we saved 'Her Sielaire'. And its not like anyone was going to tell Ayrenn 'No,' not when she was driving herself ragged trying to heal you herself, anyway she could. Magic or mundane."

"She really did that?"

"Mhmmm. Can't imagine how she'll be as a  _mom.._."

"Wait… you said the  _chemist_?"

Andra sighed and nodded.

"Ah fuck, Ayrenn…. Damn it all, of  _fucking course_." Sie got to her feet and scrambled to the Queen's tent. Andra stared after her, shaking her head.

"Brilliant conversationalist, that one."

* * *

 

Sie had fallen to her knees at Ayrenn's side that night, startling her mate awake. After some slurred yet determined words, Sie had gotten Ayrenn to explain the choices she'd made when Sie had been unconscious. It hadn't erased the pain in Sie's eyes, but it had gotten her a mead-flavored kiss and a night in Sie's arms.

In the morning it became clear their disagreement had merely shifted, not disappeared. Sie at least now understood  _why_  Ayrenn did what she did, but they still couldn't agree on a course of action moving forward.

Sie desperately wanted Ayrenn and their child or children away from danger. She now believed Ayrenn when she insisted their child would be her heir, but from a tactical standpoint, that added stress to her duties as a 'royal guard.' Ayrenn had enemies, and  _any_ child dear to her, much less her heir, would count those enemies among their own.

Sie knew Ayrenn was a growing target- both figuratively and literally.

She wanted Ayrenn on a ship home, the fastest their funds and bonds could secure. Ayrenn would be able to arrive well before the birth, be assisted by the palace's skilled royal midwives to insure the best of care during her labor. Then Ayrenn could stay in Alinor and nurse their young, direct the troops from the safety of their home via astral projection. Sielaire wanted to be by her side, but knew Ayrenn would need her in the field.

Ayrenn didn't understand Sielaire's worries. They had a mission and until it was complete, nowhere would be truly 'safe' for their child. She wanted her baby with her, she didn't want to abandon the frontlines, and she definitely didn't want to leave Sie. So the most logical choice for her was to have her baby on the road, proceed as usual, raise the kid from the seat of the saddle so to speak.

But Sielaire didn't want that.

Part of Ayrenn understood the danger, even as she felt the safest place in the world for their child would be right between herself and Sielaire. And a ship passage would take forever… she'd be out of commission for too long even on the fastest of ships, a problem that had been meticulously accounted for before she had ever even left Alinor. Hidden in her travel reticule along with the most mundane of hygiene products, was a small, unassuming scroll, with a very powerful secret. If things got hairy, she could use the scroll to send her child home via teleportation... she would just need to amend the set of instructions she'd left with the dungeon guards for the possibility of any "small precious packages."

Luckily, their journey soon took them near a sizable city, where a local bank was sure to have a courier's post. In addition to sending her instructions to those who would need them back home, several of her soldiers also had messages sent to their loved ones, and checked if they had mail awaiting them.

One such message came for Kaeir, who eyed the fine parchment with distaste before breaking the seal and reading the exorbitantly loopy calligraphy therin delivering him the news that he was now a father. The child was a boy. He'd need to come home and marry the child's mother.

"So are you going back?" Earilas asked his commander upon hearing him recount the pertinent information.

Kaeir's only reaction was an annoyed sneer of disgust.

"Is it Rilen's then?" Earilas smirked, knowing Kaeir's former paramour had given him just as much hell as she had pleasure.

"Rilen was a good lay, but we were never going to get married… this has my mother's machinations written all over it… and I definitely don't want to spend a minute in a house with both of those women… no son is worth that. Maybe they'll rip each other's throats out and save the whelp years of grief."

Behind them Sielaire frowned. Her thoughts turned to her childhood home and to those she had left behind for far too long. It was a common enough name, but a thread of doubt at its mention wormed its way into her heart.


	7. Course

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Angst Alert)

Despite Sie's frequent protestations, Ayrenn continued her travels. Months slid by and it was soon undeniable that too much time had passed for Ayrenn to safely complete a ship passage.

Sie felt not unlike she had the day they faced the spectral swarm, knowing her own action had doomed those in her charge when her Tempest had been rebounded unto them.

She had failed.

Her most instinctual drive, to protect, above all others, her mate and their offspring… and she had done nothing. Their fate seemed set now, and the unyielding stress of continuing their journey cast a haze of gloom into Sie's heart that fogged everything.

Every step, every breath, a failure. Counter to her nature, and yet she continued. Could no more abandon them than she could cut her own heart out, even as she marched alongside them, complicit in their certain deaths.

Her mind could no longer reconcile the two truths. She couldn't let herself think.

She refused to feel.

Anything.

And this at least,  _herself_ , she could control.

* * *

Ayrenn could feel Sielaire slipping away from her. At first she tried to pull out a smirk, falling back on their playful banter. Then gentle compliments she'd hoped would bring out a softening of her lover's eyes. Neither the touch of a finger against Sie's ear nor Ayrenn stroking herself lazily in the dark of their tent until their bond marks glowed could incite even a hint of lust.

Every attempt to engage her failed and Ayrenn grew frustrated, angry. Tried to get Sielaire mad, too. But she refused to rise to any bait. If she responded to Ayrenn at all, it was with a despondent "Do what you will, Your Majesty."

It enraged Ayrenn, because what she wanted, what she  _willed,_ was for Sielaire to be happy. "If I get ' _everything I want_ ', then why are you still mad at me?!" she spat into the darkness. There was no response from the bedroll near the door.

If she wanted an answer, it would have to be her own.

* * *

It was just a small skirmish.

By all accounts it wasn't that dangerous, but the rocky cliffs had spread them out and left the leading end of their party vulnerable to an ambush by poorly-equipped bandits. Ayrenn made an easy target. Resplendent armor up on her finely-bred mount, her mind lost among the wagons at the back of their party, where Sielaire kept watch while Andralda carefully guided the oxen along the tricky landscape.

The crossbow bolt struck her side, in the more flexible folds of her armor, sinking in a finger-length before being stopped by the plates near her hip. A shield went up as Urcelmo's horse was struck in the flank and it bolted forward. Archers returned the volley blind, but even so, Ayrenn could just make out the grunt of pain from where one of their hidden attackers had been struck. Hand on her hip, striking an imposing profile, she directed those most able to move up the cliff. Turning to hide her injured side against the rocky cliff face, she silently channeled healing magic around the wound as she snapped the offending thing in half. She ripped out what she could and tossed the blood-stained shaft to the ground as her muscle and skin stitched back together and expelled the head inside her armor.

She kept her hand over the wound best she could, hiding the damage to avoid a panic as she helped Urcelmo settle his horse, the sound of swords and magic fading above them.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, turning to assess their party.

She nodded dismissively as a cheer erupted behind them, "Looks like we're fine."

 

And they were, physically.

But after her tent was set up that evening she retired early, entering it with her armor still on, carefully removing it in the privacy of the tent. Her undergarments were ruined. The skin was hot and raised where she had healed it, but ruddy pools stained her clothes and smeared streaks crossed her side like phantom wounds. As she twisted to see despite her rounded stomach, she heard the unmistakable whirl of the tent flap being opened.

The unholy sound that burst forth from her mate would haunt Ayrenn for decades. A strangled, anguished cry, a warped perversion of her breathless moan of pleasure. For like those times, Sielaire had ceased to breathe, the entirety of her focus on Ayrenn, overcome with emotion.

For the first time in weeks, months, Sielaire reached for her.

Ayrenn nearly rejoiced as she moved forward, but Sielaire recoiled before Ayrenn could close the short distance between them. Sielaire fell to her knees, and curled into herself, one hand clenching against the dirt as the other clamped over her mouth. Ayrenn's first thought was that Sielaire was about to be sick, but she was halted in her tracks when the first gut-wrenching sob escaped from behind Sielaire's hand.

Ayrenn had been craving an emotional response from her, but not like this. Never like this, No. It was the most she'd seen Sie  _present_ in weeks, and for what? Pure anguish.

The cloying undeniable sense of guilt crept over her. She had laughed and shrugged off Sielaire's worries, left the battlereeve with no choice but to follow against her wishes, assured that their love made them invincible. But how could she claim to love her mate if she didn't even listen to her? And Sielaire had been right. As powerful as they were, mistakes… surprises were bound to happen. Aye, she was fine, but all the healing magic in the world wouldn't have brought back their baby if the bolt had struck a few inches over.

All things Sielaire had undoubtedly already known, had tried to tell her.

But had she listened? No. Instead, Ayrenn did  _this_  to her.

She  _had_ to fix it.

She awkwardly lowered herself to her knees and rummaged through her bags, rooting around powders and balms and linens before her fingers curled around her goal.

 

Sielaire could see nothing but blood.

A haze clouded her vision and filled the void with warped memories and nightmares.

Blood poured from Ayrenn's cold, still, side in sickly rivers, bursting from her once swollen womb. The child inside that they'd turned their world upside down for, now a pierced and broken blur. She had seen the bloody bolt on the trail after the ambush and felt nothing but cold indifference. But she'd let them walk into danger. Drove a wedge between them. When it had mattered most, she had distracted her Queen. She had been too weak to protect them. She'd unleashed the Tempest on her own. She'd doomed her love,  _she'd lost control_.

She'd failed so many ways… was this feeling the pieces of her broken heart shattering into dust?

A trembling hand on her face, and then she was looking up at blurry blue eyes. A thumb wiped at her tears and Ayrenn's face came slowly into focus. The despair she felt was mirrored there in those cold azure pools, lined with worry and grief.

The hand retreated and Sielaire watched its progress from a place over her own left shoulder.

Ayrenn, whole and firm, on her knees before her own crumpled form. In her hands, resting over her tummy, their growing child, a tiny scroll, clenched in shaking hands.

Ayrenn's mouth moved but she didn't understand.

"I'm so sorry Sielaire. I've been so stupid, but I'll make it right," she whispered. Sielaire stared at her unblinking. Ayrenn shook herself, barely holding on to her own composure, and pressed an unsure hand to Sielaire's chest.

She came back to herself with a start, hand clenching almost painfully around the one that rested over her heart.

"This can take us home, I should have told you. I should have listened. I- I never wanted this to happen. I don't want- I can't lose you, Sie-" Ayrenn's voice caught on a sob.

And then she felt Sielaire's fingertips against her chest, "Never."

Ayrenn sobbed again and plowed into her, the scroll rolling away, forgotten, as they held each other heart to heart and cried.


	8. Cleave

One small scroll.

A one way trip home.

"I can go with you," Sielaire offered.

Ayrenn lay in the crook of Sielaire's arm, her hand around Sie's wrist, moving Sie's hand to try and catch the subtle movements of their child as she stirred in her typical early morning restlessness. Her other hand stroked Sie's ear and she felt Sie's combing through her hair.

"My heart wants you to, too. But I need you here," Ayrenn pressed her face into Sie's shoulder, already dreading it. "Our people need you more than I do. Who would you have lead them, Kaeir?" Sielaire grimaced and held her tighter. "I thought not."

"I need to check on my sister."

Ayrenn sat up so she could see Sielaire's face, she rarely mentioned her family and this seemed an abrupt change in subject.

"I have a bad feeling... she might need help."

"I'll do whatever I can," Ayrenn assured her. She moved Sie's hand fast enough that time, and watched an awed smile spread across Sie's face.

"I love you," they both said in unison.

A few days later they stood in the tight ring of each other's arms.

"You'll report in as often as possible," Ayrenn directed.

"I know. You have the letter?"

"Yes."

"You'll listen to the midwives, and-"

"Yes, and I'll let you know as soon as she's born."

"And as soon as I'm done here-"

"Then we'll wed," Ayrenn smiled as Sielaire rolled her eyes.

" _-then_  I'll head home."

"You'll hurry."

"You  _won't_ ," Sie countered, placing her hand on Ayrenn's stomach.

"And you'll stay  _safe,"_ and then in a whisper that revealed the depth of emotion she was holding back, "I can't do this on my own, Sie."

"You won't, Renn, I promise."

They stared into each other's eyes and then closed the little distance between them. Their lips crashed together, teeth and tongues clashing in a desperate attempt to take in this last memory of each other. The taste, the feel, the warmth of their heated breath. The tentative exploration of familiar territory, returning home after a long absence. Purpose and hope. All these impalpable things they found in their kiss. Sie's hands clung to either side of Ayrenn's jaw, her thumbs wiping away the tears there. Ayrenn's hands fisted in Sielaire's hair, at the base of her neck, and stroked her ears with her thumbs.

Jeers and cheers erupted from the crowd of people circling them, but they only pulled away when they were ready.

From either side, Andralda and Urcelmo approached. Urcelmo went to hand over the scroll but Ayrenn turned instead to Andra as Sie stared at the blacksmith in confusion.

"Its still a little warm but'll be okay to touch," she stated cryptically, as Ayrenn lifted the cloth in her arms to reveal her plain silver circlet.

Only "plain" didn't quite fit anymore.

Engraved in to the once smooth silver was now a barely visible pattern of lightning and feathers. The motif was abstract and looked more like stylized calligraphy and then Sie realized that parts of it  _were_ , and nestled in the pattern were her and Ayrenn's names. She waited for Ayrenn to put it on, but instead the Queen smiled and turned the circlet around, raising to place it on Sielaire's forehead.

"Ayrenn, I-"

But Ayrenn raised her voice and addressed the crowd before Sie could protest, "I will be commanding from Alinor, but I leave you all in the capable hands of Battlereeve Sielaire."

"Looks like her hands aren't the only thing capable about her!" came a shout from the back of the crowd followed by a roar of jovial laughter.

For a second Sielaire stood frozen, eyes locked with Ayrenn's. Ayrenn raised an eyebrow and smirked and Sie straightened.

"Earilas, Latrine Duty!" She called out without looking away from Ayrenn.

"Yes Battlereeve!" he answered, fully expecting the reprimand.

"And then set up the sparring ring!"

His second confirmation was noticeably more hesitant.

Sielaire reached for the scroll and then handed it to Ayrenn. She reached up and placed another quick kiss on Ayrenn's lips before retreating a few yards with Urcelmo and Andra to either side of her.

Ayrenn broke the seal and read the words therin quietly, looking back up and locking eyes with Sielaire as she finished the incantation. The grass below her feet disappeared as magic swirled around the spot. As green eyes faded into iron bars, she heard the echo of Sielaire's voice.

"I love you, too," she shouted back.

"Aww, Your Majesty, I love you, too," the dungeon guard smiled and then his eyes grew wide, "Mara's Rack! 'Small Parcels' my arse!" He exclaimed, confirming they had received her now-moot modified instructions.

"Ah yes," Ayrenn glanced down at her belly, "I guess you could say it's a special delivery."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (End of previously posted "Conception")


	9. Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (New content starts here!)

Rilenya sat in the gaudy parlor, her son pressed to her chest as he lazily nursed. Her legs bounced in a way that could have been to sooth her child, but was actually just a symptom of months of pent up, nervous energy. Not that she'd admit it.

 _Coming here had been a mistake._  She'd hoped her relationship with the dashing heir would prove prosperous, but if anyone was going to use her son as a bargaining chip, it was going to be  _her_ , not some self-entitled dowager who'd had absolutely no hand in his creation. She could head home, Virano wouldn't turn them out even if his views on children differed from her own. But the Cotton Queen had made her intentions clear, if Rilen wanted her newborn son to be the next heir to her empire, then Rilen would play by the dowager's rules.

Rilen might not need the help, but she struggled with balancing her son's future security and her own, more immediate independence.

Kaeir's mother would see them married. Rilen had once entertained the idea… maybe played it up a bit when it had seemed advantageous to do so, sure... but if the past few months were a preview of marriage to this family… Rilen wasn't sure what she would do if Kaeir returned any time soon. She felt isolated and alone. She missed her family and her ancestral home. She missed the gang of wastrels at her favorite tavern, and the taste of good cider and cheap mead. She hadn't lain with anyone since the last time she'd seen Kaeir, and missed adult intimacy. She'd love for someone to feast on her chest and  _not_ have it end up with them puking on her shoulder.

She smirked as Kaellian burped with a solid pat to his back. She loved her son, loved watching him grow and take in each new tiny bit of the world. He could stare at his own hands for hours, amazed. But she needed something more.

She was just… so...  _fucking_ bored.

She hadn't created anything in months. Her fingers itched with the stillness. She hadn't even been permitted to sew rompers for her own child, his grandmother insisting he be swathed in the same ancestral gowns that Kaeir, herself, and her forebears had worn.

Her newborn smelled as stuffy as an attic. Rilen frowned at the thought again as she heard a knock on the door.

"Rilenya, a letter from the war front," the butler announced. Rilen perked up immediately despite the fact that it could only be from Kaeir. Her admittedly shallow affections for him had already been fading the last time they talked, but anything was better than sitting here watching the patterns on the wallpaper until the shapes started to dance. Maybe he had found a way to thwart his mother's plans.

As she hastilly broke the seal and read the letter's contents, she realized it was something so much better. The conflict here was not resolved, but this was nothing if not a stay of execution.

After all, the Cotton Queen could not prevent a royal summons from the  _actual_  one.

* * *

Ayrenn's first couple of weeks back at her ancestral homeland were chaotic. She'd insured the delivery of Sielaire's letter, and updated her counsel on the progress they'd made on the front.

She met with her barristers and counsel to insure the legal status of her heir. There was push back about the child being born out of wedlock. Ayrenn was adamant that the archaic condition had no place in her reign. After days of arguing in circles, Ayrenn appeased the hold-outs by assuring them that her marriage with the heir's sire was… imminent. "Soon" was a relative term, surely.

Her appointments with the midwives were notably more intrusive, but also more exciting. Her instincts were confirmed when the same old crone who had delivered her announced that it would be a single birth.

"Can you tell if its a boy or girl?" Ayrenn quizzed. The head midwife eyed her skeptically and then shooed her assistants out of the room. "Oh, secrets?"

"You seem to be holding some… rather pertinent information fairly close to heart, so I wasn't sure how much of this you want to be public knowledge… but no, there's no magic to scrye on the sex, though I suspect we'll know soon enough now."

"Oh, then why all the-" Ayrenn motioned to doors with a wave of her hand.

"Well there's no way to determine it, but the possible outcomes are highly dependant on what dice you're rolling with, if you catch my meaning."

"I...I'm sorry, I don't."

"If I remember right, and I do, of course.  _You_  were a bit on the early side, yourself. Its hard to tell sometimes, we don't always know when we conceive, but an early birth is a fairly sure sign of an omega." Ayrenn tried not to react, but she must have anyway, for the midwife chuckled knowingly, "Well that would explain things a bit, Your Majesty. What happened, did you run low on  _Bane?_ "

Ayrenn's jaw dropped, "You knew I was Omega?!"

"I- wait, you didn't?"

"Why didn't anyone tell me!?"

"Well maybe if someone hadn't  _run off_  well before the information became pertinent, maybe somebody would have, hm?"

Ayrenn crossed her arms and slumped back down on the chaise with a pout, acting not unlike the child who'd thrown the Isles and the line of succession into a tailspin they were still trying to correct. "It was my first heat... if it wasn't for Si-"

"The Battlereeve!"

Ayrenn snapped up and glared at her, "Sielaire realized what was happening and secured Alpha's Bane for me." The midwife raised an eyebrow and dropped a pointed look down at Ayrenn's stomach. Ayrenn bit her lip and rubbed circles on her skin, feeling the ever frequent movements underneath, "This wasn't from my heat. This was a choice… that almost cost me everything."

They were silent for a while as Ayrenn reined in her emotions. The midwife cleared her throat before continuing, ignoring Ayrenn's outburst. "If you weren't Omega, there's the common answer. If for instance,  _Urcelmo_ was the sire, then there's no way to say really. Odds are nearly 50/50. And true, I don't know her well enough to say definitively, but I imagine  _if_ the battlereeve is the sire, then the child would almost positively be a girl."

"A/O women always have girls?"

"There are exceptions to every rule. For instance, the  _blacksmith…_ if they're the sire, then I'd expect a boy."

"Her name is Andralda."

"Right. Well. Any other questions?"

"Yes.  _How much longer_?" She whined dramatically, breaking into a chuckle as the midwife shook her head in disappointment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have surmised, sex and gender in this verse have their own additional nuisances. Trans and nb individuals would still very much exist, but there's also an entirely distinct sex resulting from viable XY/XY pairings possible due to alpha/omega dynamics. In this verse, roughly 6-7% of the population (If you're interested in the numbers I have a series of Mendel cross spreadsheets where I worked it out) are YY and are typically afab, though there are those among the Altmer with less than accepting opinions on that convention. A YY and XX pairing would only typically result in XY offspring.


	10. Confidant

When Rilenya arrived at the castle in Alinor, she was immediately ushered to the throne room as maids and guards and other servants bustled around excitedly. Rilen caught snippets of various conversations, and deduced they were preparing for someone's arrival. A trio of maids cooed over Kaellian as she waited for the antechamber doors to open. She smoothed down her skirts again. She had worn her best dress, but she feared she'd wrinkled it wearing it during the last leg of their travel. She couldn't help but be nervous. She was about to meet  _the Queen_.

She heard the sound of the ancient oak doors open as the maids promptly scattered. Then realized only one door was being rather hastily opened by the guard on the other side.

And there she was, slipping between the unopened door and scandalized guard, and bearing directly down on her, blonde hair flying out from behind her, her eyes bright with joy as they first took her in and then were immediately drawn to Kaellian.

"You have a  _baby!"_ She reached out and touched Kaellian's still curled ears. Stunned into silence for maybe the first time ever, Rilenya could only stare, though Ayrenn continued on, unfazed, "Follow me, we'll find a private place to talk."

As she swiftly pulled ahead of Rilen, leading her toward the royal quarters, Rilen eyed her thick, elegant dress, adorned with elaborately draping swaths of the finest fabrics she'd ever seen. Her gaze fell on the Queen's well-toned ass, wonderfully formed from months,  _years?_  of travel. She shook the less than reverent thoughts from her head as something else about that ass registered.

It was  _waddling_.

She replayed their brief interaction in her mind, but she hadn't been paying attention to the Queen's body, having been awed by her face. But all the pieces were coming together now, as they stepped into a small sunshine-filled parlor.

The Queen was  _expecting_.

"Rilenya, it's so nice to meet you, we weren't sure you would come."

Rilen tried to curtsy while holding her son and eyeing the queen's now undeniably pregnant form, "Your Ma-"

" _Ayrenn_ ," she corrected, putting light pressure on the underside of Rilen's elbows, pulling her back up. Rilen was flabbergasted as Ayrenn's eyes scanned her, "You look so much like her… but also not at all…"

"Who?"

"Sie… Sielaire." Ayrenn dropped her hands and moved toward a comfortable looking chaise facing a large window that looked out over the gardens.

"Is she here?" It had been years since she'd seen her sister, her wayward hero, full of wanderlust and vacillation.

Ayrenn emitted a lengthy sigh and motioned toward the chair beside her. "No, unfortunately, she's leading the front."

Rilen settled in the chair, aiming for an air of elegant poise, though Ayrenn seemed to be lost in thought and not paying her any attention. Rilen wasn't entirely sure why she was here, in Alinor, this room. She was beginning to wonder if the queen knew either.

Sielaire's letter had asked if she could act as a companion of sorts to the young queen, but the wording had been different than Sie's typically brusk messages. There were details that had seemed… out of place. Explanations for things Rilen would never have thought to question, and every single one of them, subtle praise. Praise for the  _woman_ before her, not her crown.

She had arrived without hearing a word of Ayrenn's condition. There had been rumors the Queen had returned from the front but nobody had seen her outside of the castle.  _Why all the secrecy?_

It was Kaellian who finally broke the silence.  _Apparently_ , being an infant excused him from the typical decorum. Though Ayrenn didn't seem to be adhering to it either. Rilen took note and relaxed, taking Sielaire's words to heart. If Ayrenn needed a friend, and her sister thought she could fill that role, then Sielaire would expect a different side of Rilen than any of the many personas she drew on. No, Sielaire would expect her to be nothing but herself.

Ayrenn had sat up at Kaellians fussing, eying him with both wonder and apprehension. "He looks quite like his father, do you think?" Ayrenn asked.

Rilen let her surprise roll over her and nodded, "He has my eyes at least."

Ayrenn nodded, "Sie's are green, too, but more like raw jade. Does your brother have red hair, also?"

"Er, its… more auburn…" Rilen's heart seemed slow, her vision blurred as a single unrelenting thought blared in her head.

"I know he's young still, but what about temperament? Does it seem like he takes after either of you more than the other?"

"Ayrenn… Is that my sister's baby?"

"I… Yes, but... her parentage is confidential for no-"

Rilen frowned,  _Confidential?_ "Sie wouldn't have  _wanted_  to bring a child into this chaos," she glared at Ayrenn and instinctively pulled her son back. She was ready to defend her sister when she saw Ayrenn's composure crumble.

Ayrenn wilted before her. One hand to her face and another shielding her tummy. She nodded and shook her head in a confusing wobble. "I know," she whispered. "Its my fault, I- I broke my promise." She met Rilen's eyes then, "I chose Sie's life over her wishes. I didn't realize… I had underestimated my inability to correct the mistake."

Rilen glared,  _so what? Sie's below her and reproducing with her would be a mistake?_

"The  _situation,_ rather.  _Not_ choosing Sie, not choosing  _this_."

Rilen took a deep breath to calm herself, and buy herself a few moments to think. "She'll be fully recognized then? Your child?"

"Yes. Sie might not be ready for the attention, but our child will grow up with it…" As she spoke, she regained that commanding confidence from before. "This might not be the right time... What I thought I wanted. What Sie wanted. But  _now_ , this is a wanted child. This child is my future…" Ayrenn looked pointedly at Rilen then, " _Sie_  is my future." She put a hand over her heart, "Sie is my  _life_."

Rilen's eyes widened. Kaellian whined again, growing impatient for his dinner. Rilen watched as Ayrenn's expression softened as the queen gazed down to where Rilen bounced him on her knee. Ayrenn moved her hand and conjured a palm-sized sparkling illusion of stars. Kaellian blinked rapidly and quieted, distracted by the fanciful scene before him.

The two women smiled, and Rilen decided that her sister was right. She  _would_ enjoy being the Queen's companion. Rilen had been surprised by Ayrenn's willingness to admit her fault. It, frankly, went against everything she'd ever heard about the Unforeseen Queen. But maybe it was a facet of her personality that was reserved for members of her inner circle, and if Rilen could count herself among such number, then all the more reason for her tenure in this role. So yes, maybe Ayrenn fucked up some, but who doesn't? Rilen certainly had her own share of miscalculations. But Ayrenn was making things  _right_ , so Rilen would be whatever she needed.

"So, Ayrenn… what do you wanna know?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this was almost cut completely when I was using the other format, and is one of the reasons I decided to change formats, which would have been a shame because this introduction was one of the first outline bullet points in this story.


	11. Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The Day_ approaches.

Over the next few weeks Ayrenn and Rilenya would bond over many conversations of widely varied topics. Ayrenn had many questions about her impending labor, and they commisserated over the more tedious aspects of pregnancy. They had dinners with Ayrenn’s favorite cousin, Alwinarwe, who spent most of each occasion exasperated at each of them for various reasons. With Alwin gracefully reclaiming her role as Proxy Queen, Ayrenn’s schedule was light on more official duties. Together, they prepared the royal nursery, while Rilen told Ayrenn tales about Sielaire’s childhood. Tears of laughter streaming down her face, Ayrenn had to excuse herself to the water closet in a hurry when Rilen recounted “The Applesauce Story”  _ while  _ serving Kaellian a bowlful of the transition food. 

When they were apart, Ayrenn would slowly pace the court clerk’s chambers, an alchemy laboratory, ancient library, and an office full of ledgers and records. The clerk busied herself  here, insuring swift delivery of magical messages. She was currently furiously trying to ignore Ayrenn after being ordered to do so after inquiring if the Queen needed anything one to many times. For this was where any word from Sielaire would arrive, and Ayrenn desperately wished to hear from her. The sudden lack of Sie in her day to day life was proving the most draining challenge on her since she’d returned.

Rilen would do her best to distract Ayrenn on days when she didn’t receive a message from Sielaire. She’d shown the progress she’d made on the little rompers for Kaellian, and Ayrenn had asked her to make one for his cousin as well. Rilen shared the gossip she’d dug up from around the castle, made hilarious by her not knowing the nicknames of most the people she was talking about. Rilen had let her vent her frustrations with the counsel, and Ayrenn had guided her through her extensive closests. But Rilen knew. Ayrenn’s voice would trail off, and she’d look up to see the Queen staring out a window, one hand on her stomach, the other over her heart, brow knit with worry. Or she’d see Ayrenn wipe her eyes before turning to return Rilen’s greetings. 

Rilen was torn. On one hand she worried her sister could be oblivious to the depths of Ayrenn’s affections, but she also desperately hoped Sie wasn’t similarly distracted on the battlefield. 

* * *

She’s well overdue, she’s fairly certain. When Rilen saw her this morning, she had said it looked liked the baby had shifted positions, and proclaimed today “ _ The Day _ … or maybe tomorrow… soon, though. Definitely soon.” Ayrenn had smiled at her sister’s antics, but she had secretly agreed. It wouldn’t have been a fair wager however, as Ayrenn had extra insight. 

Early this morning, her bond mark had started to glow. Faint and intermittent at first, she had smiled at the thought of Sielaire seeking out her pleasure. Experimentation during the early days of their bond had revealed the tell-tale side effect, and Ayrenn had oft used the tactic to tempt Sie into cutting her nightly patrols short. For when either of them found their pleasure  _ alone _ , thoughts of the other were unrelenting, and the intimate bond would manifest itself as a pulsing glow from each of the marks on their chests. 

But when the glow had persisted throughout the early morning, Ayrenn suspected the root of the phenomenon was a different, and better documented reason - labor. 

However, she had also been struck with a burning desire to answer a question she’d had for months now, and if she revealed her condition, she knew she’d lose her chance to investigate completely. 

Kaellian sat in the high-chair, padded and propped with swaths of linens, a pile of mushy, unidentifiable lumps smeared on the table before him. Still mostly on breast milk, Rilen had mentioned her eagerness to wean him before his teeth started filling in, but besides applesauce he tended to just use the semi-solid foods as finger paints.

The women had a light hearted discussion about a series of romance novels they were each reading, and then Rilen excused herself to clean up Kaellian. Ayrenn made her way, like she had nearly every day, to the Court Clerk’s chambers. Only this time, she waddled past the clerk into the vast hall of books armed with a rough early-morning doodle.

* * *

Sielaire had been up most the night. After taking her usual shift at guard, she’d fallen into her bedroll in what had been Ayrenn’s tent, only to be awakened by a soft glow. 

Her heart  _ ached  _ with their separation, but part of her warmed at Ayrenn’s prodding. Or maybe Ayrenn wasn’t doing this to get Sie’s notice at all, though Sie wasn’t sure she liked that answer any better.  _ Is this even something Ayrenn should be doing so late in pregnancy? Though I guess before is better than after _ … and Sie knew how voracious Ayrenn could get when something was denied her. 

She’d thought about returning the favor, stroking her own ardor so that Ayrenn knew she was here, was paying attention. But her thoughts of Ayrenn kept trending toward images of their impending motherhood. It would still be many months before they wrapped up things here, and then the couple months long journey home. What milestones would she miss of their daughter’s while on the battlefield? What bonds would Ayrenn and their child share that Sie would be intruding into when she returned? Would she ever get to watch her child nurse? If something were to happen to Sie, they would never meet, and what would Ayrenn tell of her to them? 

_ Would they ever know how much I loved her? Them?  _

Sielaire had been halfway through the third draft of a letter to her unborn child when the scouts had barreled break neck into camp at dawn. 

There was an army approaching, and they weren’t flying Ayrenn’s colors. 


	12. Contractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayrenn finds some answers as she runs out of time, the extent of their bond is revealed, and Sielaire's leadership is put up to a difficult test. (Also, Andra is awesome and I love her)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a theme song: [On the Line by Night Riots](https://genius.com/Night-riots-on-the-line-lyrics)

The sporadic contractions became noticeable as Ayrenn scoured the her fifth book that morning and finally found one third of what she she was looking for. 

_ “Kuta... _ Legendary.”

Ayrenn preened at the translation. Of course Sielaire’s skill on the battlefield was legendary, but so too would be Ayrenn’s reign, her Dominion. If the tales and folklore about bonding glyphs were to be believed, then their love would be legendary, as well. Together, stronger than the two of them apart. She didn’t need a rune to tell her that, but it was nice to think it confirmed by one of the three symbols that made up the marks on their chests. 

* * *

Sielaire let her magic dissipate over the bodies before her and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her bracer rang out as it slid along the circlet she ardently wore, marking her as Ayrenn’s. 

They’d had little time to prepare for this battle, and her soldiers were feeling the strain. They’d split up into three contingents of roughly equal number, Urcelmo, Kaeir, and herself each leading about a hundred each. Urcelmo was attempting to stealthily outflank their enemies while Sie and Kaeir kept them occupied in the open. The senior battlereeve would stay hidden, take a wide arc to avoid detection, and trick their enemies into underestimating them. Hopefully remove the leadership without slaughtering the draftees they marched ahead of them.   
That left Sie and Kaeir between the advancing army and the town where they’d made camp. But whatever maneuver Urcelmo had planned was taking too long. Sie’s contingent had been backed up nearly to the camp and she took a moment to survey the field, seeing Kaeir much further out. _ We need to regroup.  _

She barely registered the sudden pain that split across her face when she was struck by an invisible attacker and sent flying down the rocky outcropping. She tasted blood on her lips and then there was nothing as she slipped out of consciousness.

* * *

Ayrenn was stuck. The nondescript “XI” symbol she’d scribbled this morning could be any number of runes. In a fit of frustration, she slammed her palm down on the desk, sending small jets of sparkling blue magic fizzling about the room. 

As if to chastise her outburst, another contraction hit. Far from “noticeable”, this one stopped her in her tracks. She clenched her eyes shut tight and curled into herself. When she opened her eyes she was met with the glow of the bonding mark once more, bright enough now to glow through the fabric of her dress. Thank the gods she was alone… She eyed the quiet doorway again, then turned and put her back to it. She pulled her neckline down and gazed at the now crisp lines of the glyph on her chest.    
The “XI” drew her attention again, “Ugh, seriously?!” She shook her head and flipped her paper over, quickly realizing she’d seen this one on the last list- just upside down and with lines at a slightly different angle. However, the third, more complicated shape, she was less sure about. As her mark and the contraction began to fade, she carefully redrew it on its own scrap of paper before pulling her neckline back into place, and adjusting her hair to further hide the glyph below. 

As she went back to the list, her thoughts turned again to Sielaire. She wished she could be here with her, she couldn’t believe they were about to step into the next phase of their life half a world apart. She missed her more than anything. The warmth of her body and the weight of her gaze. Their meaningless conversations, nonsense to lighten the constant stress of battle, had meant everything to her. If Sie were here, Ayrenn would have teased and taunted her mercilessly until Sie eventually responded and made proper use of this dark secluded corner of the castle.  _ This table is plenty solid enough _ , Ayrenn figured with a wistful smile, hand resting on the swell of her stomach.  _ Well, maybe not with the little one between us, but Sie would at least have made this task half as arduous. _

She shook her head to focus, and searched for the the meaning of revised second glyph from the list. 

“ _ Repora _ \- Reinforce.”  _ Well that’s not very informative.  _ “ …  _ Reinforce _ ? Reinforce what!?” She slammed the tome closed and then shrieked as warm liquid cascaded down her thighs. She shot out of her seat, sending the chair toppling over backwards with a loud crash. 

_ Time’s up. _

“ _ Damn it _ .” 

“Your Majesty!?” the clerk cried out, quickly sounding the alarm when she discovered the puddle at Ayrenn’s feet. Within moments the room was swarming with the midwife's assistants, footmen, maids, advisors, and Rilen. Ayrenn just managed to snag the scrap of paper with the third rune on it as she was carried out of the room despite her protests, the frenzied anticipation of the palace staff was palpable, and reminded her of the drunken campfire revelries on the campaign trail.

They got her to the birthing suite and Alwinarwe ordered everyone except for Rilen to go find the head midwife when another contraction hit. Disturbed by the entire reproductive process, Alwin wished her dear cousin the best, and made a hasty retreat to the throne room. After Ayrenn’s initial gasp of pain, she opened her eyes to see Rilen, stunned quiet, staring pointedly at the top swell of her breast. 

“Rilen, I need you to-”

“Holy shit.”

“Rilen-”

“I can’t- ...you?”

“ _ Rilen _ !” her eyes snapped to Ayrenn’s, wide as saucers. Ayrenn handed her the drawing and closed the other woman’s fist around the scrap of paper. “Go ask the clerk what this rune means,” she said in the most authoritative voice she could manage with the pain. 

“You’re  _ mated _ !?” 

* * *

Ears ringing, Sie slowly opened her eyes to a wave of heat radiating from a few feet above her. Andralda stood defensively over her prone and aching body, attacking with unwieldy blasts of her fire magic. At close range, the blacksmith had unparalleled control over temperature and spread, but at any distance the immense power Andralda emitted was wild and terrifying, dangerous. She held back from using it this way because the flames were just as likely to turn on them as they were to keep enemies at bay. For her to be doing so now… they must be in bad shape indeed. Sie needed to do something, and fast.

With a grunt of effort as she vanquished some unseen enemy, Andralada’s flame died down long enough for Sie to hold up a hand. She was pulled quickly to her feet and stood surveying the bloody,  _ slightly charred _ , scene before them. She wiped her arm across her mouth and it came away smeared in blood. Her head spun with a pounding, incessant pain, and it felt like she had a few broken ribs to match the blow to her face.  _ Oh well, healing will have to wait _ .

With an amplified battle roar, she called for those nearby to rally for a push. As she prepared herself to lead another assault, she felt the weight of their hesitant eyes on her. 

She turned to Andra, about to ask her to join their push, and realized Andra’s eyes were on her as well. And despite the other Alpha’s sole predilection for omegas, her attention was focused quite hungrily on Sielaire’s chest.

“Holy fuck, is that a-”

Sie followed her gaze and was met with the brightest glow she’d seen in months. This was more than Ayrenn’s pleasure. The mark hadn’t shone this bright since they first mated- Sie’s breath caught as she added up the weeks in her head. And she knew.  _ Knew.  _ That this wasn’t glow from sexual intimacy, but something much more binding-  _ the birth of their child.  _

Sie gripped her chest, realizing …  _ I’m a mother now. _ Ayrenn and their child,  _ their daughter _ , were out there,  _ waiting for her _ . She cracked, overcome with the weight of it all, as a sob, amplified and echoing, was ripped from her. The sound unnerved and confused her soldiers, so used to her stoic facade. The realization, the abrupt tilt to the axis of Sie’s world, flung her focus out across Nirn and then racing back to their place in it all.  

Andralda’s steadying hand on her shoulder brought Sie back to their situation, their people’s eyes on her, her child’s future in her hands...

“Retreat! Back to the city! Hold the walls!”

Her third of Ayrenn’s army, down a dozen or so, fell hurriedly -and uncharacteristically-  _ back _ , to protect the townspeople that had hesitantly welcomed them, that they had brought this force of destruction down upon.  _ Entire families, civilians and children… _ And as they scrambled to fortify, to live to fight another day, a horrifying wave of magic erupted on the battlefield. 

Engulfing everyone in the valley, the deafening roar faded to the screams of the wounded and dying. Whoever had unleashed such a gruesome spell had vanquished their enemies, at the cost of dozens of their own, no matter which side was responsible. 

As the screams faded, Sielaire doubted they would ever truly know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](http://spatialheather.tumblr.com/post/176217098736/)


	13. Correspondence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"The princess stared at the shiney eagle emblazoned on Ayrenn’s chest, papping her little baby fists against the stubborn new barrier between her and food. She smiled up at her mother as the Queen whispered words of love and promises to hold her again soon, rejoicing in the familiar sound and timbre of the voice that was the entirety of her bright new world. She wouldn’t remember this day, in the years to come, but Ayrenn couldn’t seem to deny herself the opportunity."_

Ayrenn lay in bed, holding her baby against her bare chest as she hungrily nursed. Ayrenn trailed the tips of her fingers through a shock of orange hair, the color reminiscent of monarch butterfly wings, and just as soft. Her eyes opened lazily, unfocused, all her concentration on her meal, their color a perfect match to the slowly dimming glow of Ayrenn’s bond mark. 

“She’s beautiful Ayrenn, and big, too,” Rilen chuckled. “You think she’ll be an alpha like her sire?” 

“She look likes her,” Ayrenn smiled. She was lost in the moment for a few minutes before Rilen’s presence fully registered. “Did you talk to the clerk?”

“Oh yeah!” Rilen pulled out the slip of paper and handed it over, attention quickly slipping back to the newborn.

“Hakeijo -  _ Prism _ .” Ayrenn smirked,  _ reinforcement of … rainbows _ ? Well, at least she knew all three now. She couldn’t wait to tell Sie, she had so much to tell her-

“So… what are you going to name her?” Rilen asked, chin nudging toward the newborn.

“I promised she’d have both Sie’s name and my own.” 

“So, what?  _ Sielaire Ayrenn Arana Aldmeri _ , that's a bit of a mouthful.” 

“ _ Siren. _ ”

“Your Majesty,” The clerk stood at the doorway, two letters in her hands, nervously looking about the room, “I know you said you weren’t to be disturbed,  _ but  _ you’ve ordered me before to always bring missives from the battleree-”

“ _ Sie _ , yes, bring it here.” Ayrenn’s face lit up as she beckoned the clerk forward. They must be at a town, this was great news, she could let Sielaire know right away-

“Two came, at the same time, both from the front, so I brought them both…”

Ayrenn frowned and dismissed the clerk.  _ This was… unusual. _ She grabbed the letter with familiar handwriting on the envelope, nodding for Rilen to take the other.

“Andralda?” Rilen read.

“Blacksmith, see what she has to say.” 

Sie’s letter was short, and far from reassuring. They’d had a battle and suffered heavy losses. Ninety-eight dead, a dozen or so would need to return home, and Urcelmo and a third of Ayrenn’s former troops were missing. They were facing great, ruthless, powerful enemies… and Sie blamed herself. Then she asked about the baby and hoped Ayrenn was doing well.

The final sentence was written with different ink, maybe at a different time, and Ayrenn wondered what exactly had transpired before Sielaire had decided to add it. Had she worried it was inappropriate to ask? Had she not been sure that’s what the mark glow meant? Was this a report written with the other battlereeves and Sie had tacked on a personal postscript in private? Had she rushed through the first half in order to get to happier subjects?

“Ayrenn?” Rilen pulled her from her thoughts as she read Andra’s letter, “She says…  _ it was really close, if it hadn’t been for the mark glow, Sielaire was about to send us in too, we would have all been caught in the blast.”  _ Rilen shook her head, and continued, paraphrasing Andra’s words and reading some of them directly, “Sie was given some award for saving the town from the flames, and uhm…  _ Good thing you’re bonded, I assume that means you’re interested in more than her face, which is good, because she’s probably going to come out of this with a pretty nasty scar _ …” Rilen smiled and turned the letter over, reading again the name of who it was from. “ _ The healers were able to fix her ribs but their energies are needed elsewhere to keep the number of losses from growing _ … Man, it's really bad isn’t it?” Ayrenn nodded somberly, her hand stroking Siren’s back as Rilen continued to read, “ _ If Earilas recovers, and they think he will, he’ll be the head of what’s left of-  _ of oh. . _..of what’s left of Kaeir’s contingent _ .” Rilen looked over to where her son lay, sleeping peacefully. 

“ _ Oh _ ,  _ oh Rilen, I’m so sorry _ .”

Rilen shook her head. She did not mourn her ex-lover, but Kaellian’s loss of sire. She felt the weight of his future settle completely on her shoulders and for the first time since befriending Ayrenn, she felt alone.

* * *

The morning after the heir apparent was born, the tower bells tolled 100 times. The kingdom was thrown into deep mourning as word of the unparalleled failure spread. The usual joy at a royal birth was noticeably absent, as those most loyal to the monarchy mourned the loss of their friends and family. 

Two weeks passed, and the full impact of the defeat had set in. People were starting to vocally, publically, object to the whole idea, Ayrenn’s Dominion. Moral was down in the training camps, and the number of people dodging their conscriptions grew. Anti-draft protests sprung up ( _ Why should we go die in her war when she sits safely in her castle? _ ). Ayrenn’s council was frantic and incessant. 

If the stress was a noose around Ayrenn’s heart, Siren’s smiles were wings on her back. Ayrenn couldn’t love her daughter more, and yet every time she looked into her bright teal eyes she felt more connected and more devoted to this tiny helpless bundle. She reminded her of Sie. It was there in the unruly fluff of her hair. In the near mischievous air that accompanied her tiny smiles- Ayrenn called them proto-smirks. It was there in her voracious appetite, an intense and single-minded focus. The midwife insisted she looked just like Ayrenn had at a similar age, though Ayrenn wondered if she would have said the same about any child she bore. 

But there were things all Siren’s own, too. The smattering of freckles, the bright hue of her eyes. Those intrigued Ayrenn even more, and she couldn’t wait to see what sort of person her daughter would be, what path she would carve. She wished Sie was here too see it, too.

But with every report from her ministers, and every uneventful report from warfront, the truth became more unavoidable. Ayrenn would have to rejoin her army, and she realized now what Sie had always insisted. Soon it wouldn’t be just Sie missing Siren’s life. She couldn’t take their child with them into war. Holding Siren close to her heart, she started to cry.

* * *

The next few weeks were full of preparations. Ayrenn requested a teleportation spell to replace the one she had used, and ordered an extra one for Sie. While her body recuperated and Siren grew stronger, Ayrenn worked with her advisors on a new recruitment campaign. The selling point though, was that Ayrenn would accompany this new wave of recruits via magehall portal to as close as possible to Sielaire and the remnants of her army. But of course, it meant leaving Siren well before she could be weaned. Ayrenn had written to Sie about the issue of a wetnurse, and Sielaire asked if Rilen could take her on as Kaellian finished transitioning to solids. 

When Rilen wholeheartedly agreed, Ayrenn made sure that Rilen was more than an employee. She made Rilenya Siren’s godparent and legal guardian in her and Sielaire’s absence, and access to any funds she would ever need for the princess. The counselors weaselled in clauses in the event of Ayrenn’s death, but in private, Ayrenn confided that Rilen “don’t do what the advisors say, but at least pretend to listen.” They laughed and soaked up what time they had together, and spent a couple weeks acclimating Siren to the change. 

* * *

When it was time to depart for the mainland, Rilen accompanied Ayrenn to the guild hall where the new recruits had gathered to be seen off by their friends and families. Ayrenn delivered her speech, and the mages opened the large portal for the troops to file through as the well wishers cheered and waved, crowding the balcony above. Ayrenn broke rank and returned to hold Siren again. 

The princess stared at the shiney eagle emblazoned on Ayrenn’s chest, papping her little baby fists against the stubborn new barrier between her and food. She smiled up at her mother as the Queen whispered words of love and promises to hold her again soon, rejoicing in the familiar sound and timbre of the voice that was the entirety of her bright new world. She wouldn’t remember this day, in the years to come, but Ayrenn couldn’t seem to deny herself the opportunity. Siren giggled as her mother pressed a series of kisses against her face and hands, as the mages began to tire. As the portal flickered, Ayrenn handed Siren back to Rilenya. 

“Be safe, give Sie my love,” Rilen whispered as Siren pouted. Ayrenn nodded shakily, not capable of words as she bit her lip and stepped away, fingers reaching out to touch Siren’s freckled cheek. Siren whined as Ayrenn walked away. Rilen swayed her soothingly, as Ayrenn turned back to watch them as she stepped to the portal, the last of those who would today. As she disappeared, wiping the sheen from her eyes, Siren’s upset whimpers burst into angry, unforgettable wails.


	14. Contingent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayrenn relentlessly marches her soldiers toward her mate, amidst pitfalls and windfalls alike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one this time, but good news! The fic is fully written and set to finish up over the next week or so!!! Then it will be off to the races with Siren's story. ;)

Ayrenn had been marching the foot soldiers toward Sielaire for nearly a week. Their groans of protest went ignored, as Ayrenn called for them to break camp at dawn and march through til sundown. She was not too concerned about the drain on their stamina: nobody expected them to be here and their shear numbers would overcome any unsuspecting raiding bands. It was more important to rejoin the veterans as quickly as possible, and not  _ just  _ because her mate was their leader. She needed their expertise to mold these recruits and more effectively fold them into the ranks left vacant by Kaeir’s loss and Urcelmo’s absence.

And also,  _ she really wanted to see her mate _ .

As one of only a handful of mounted riders, she attempted to travel among the column as they marched, offering support and guidance as she had on her previous journey. 

But she was uncomfortable.

Her breasts ached for her child. Her body still trying to heal itself from the stresses of childbearing as she used a significant portion of her energy to ease her own pain. Without Urcelmo or Sielaire, she lacked both an experienced sounding board and more personal companionship. She was lonely. Isolated. The result was the projection of her as a stiff, uncaring, relentless leader, who overworked her soldiers while she wove around them in constant inspection, distant and scowling.

She almost panicked when a scout reported a sizable force ahead, moving cautiously but unerringly in their direction. She called her soldiers into formation, growing frustrated as they misinterpret her direction. She tried her best not to let her nerves show, knowing all the while that the lot of them were not prepared for battle.

So it is with much joy that Ayrenn greeted the leader of the approaching army when they broke into the clearing opposite them, for it was Urcelmo himself, leading what he believed was the entirety of Ayrenn’s forces back to the very guildhall Ayrenn had just utilized. He had nervously led her aside, hands wringing as he avoided her eye, and told her of the destruction they had witnessed from afar. Hundreds dead in a blast seen from miles away, they’d found no survivors and many unidentifiable remains. Instead, in trying to return to Alinor to protect Ayrenn and her heir as quickly and as whole as possible, they had hidden and slowly worked their way through the countryside unseen, expending much energy in remaining undetected. He had horrible news to deliver, for at his own (and Kaeir’s) urging they had split the army apart, and Sielaire was among those lost.

Ayrenn of course, refuted him instantly. Eyes widening in only a moment of shock, she quickly shook her head, “You are mistaken my, my friend. We lost a great many  soldiers  but my Sie was not among them.”

Urcelmo cringed and avoided her eyes, pressing his lips together tightly, waves of pity emanating from him. 

_ He thinks I’m in denial _ , Ayrenn realized. “No, Urcelmo, we’ve heard from them,” she explained as she pulled Sie’s letter from her chest pocket. Sie and Andra’s letters had to be sent  _ after _ Urcelmo thought they were dead, his description of the devastating attack described the same event as theirs. But Urcelmo and the others were certain in what they had seen. 

Anyone with an opinion to spare all arrived at the same conclusion: 

_ They were heading for a trap. _

Ayrenn disagreed. She knew Sielaire was still alive, could feel it in her heart. Her letter could not be a forgery, as the others suggested. Her pregnancy was largely kept secret, and only Sielaire would know she’d gone into labour. And why would anyone have thought to forge one from Andralda as well? But as her beliefs mounted, doubts grew as well. Would she not  _ always _ resist the idea of Sielaire’s demise? She was inherently biased in this assessment, but she knew there was a way to reassure herself that her instincts were right. 

“We’ll make camp here tonight, while I decide a course of action,” she ordered, voice carrying over the two tired contingents, her aching soldiers sighing in relief. The officers nodded in agreement, Urcelmo with a hint of a smile on his face at seeing her back in her element.

In the dark cover of night, in the privacy of her tent, she “checked in” with Sielaire. Hands tentatively stroking herself, conscious of the changes to her body since Siren’s birth. It would be the first time since she’d left Sie three months ago… hips twitching, finding completion frustratingly out of reach, she longed for Sie’s touch. Her bonding glyph pulsed faintly, illuminating the emptiness surrounding her. She attempted to replicate Sie’s familiar electric touch, but unsure with the safety of her results, she quickly gave up. She laid there, agitated and wanting for a handful of minutes as her mark faded. And then, a resurgence, and she knew Sie was safe, and  _ thinking of her _ . The ache for her mate was still strong, but she curled into the glow and let it lighten her heart. 

The next morning Ayrenn reassured the others that they were heading toward Sielaire and the others, safely encamped in the town where Urcelmo had unwittingly left them. She let the others wonder at her surety: they’d understand soon enough. In less than two weeks time she’d once again be in the arms of her mate, as long as they held their pace. 

“Pack up, we march out within the hour!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of things that are pertinent to this AU:  
> Each magic user has a particular color that all of their magic is a shade of. For Altmer, this matches their eyes. So Ayrenn's magic is always an icey blue, Sielaire's is a bright green, Andralda's is a deep copper. Other races don't necessarily follow the eye-matching rule.  
> Since it'd be a very common occurance in an A/B/O culture, for children to have two moms or two dads or to have a dad who birthed them and a mom who didn't, I've borrowed 'dam' and 'sire' as gender neutral words for biological parents, in addition to mother and father as gendered terms for parents despite their biological role. This comes into play once the children can actually talk.


	15. Convene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sielaire, Ayrenn, ...Reunited.

Sielaire had been doing her best to pick up the pieces after the devastating loss. Having found herself suddenly the singular remaining leader, their success weighed heavy on her shoulders. 

She would not fail her mate, not again. 

She had overseen an agreement with the town’s treethane, and in addition to the wounded, the remaining soldiers had taken up quarters throughout the town in exchange for their assistance on various projects. She had assigned those able to various tasks, assisting the local guards, picking up odd jobs with farmers and merchants, and helping rebuild the town’s decaying infrastructure. 

Spread thin as they were, they were managing to continue Ayrenn’s efforts in unification. The soldiers and the townspeople were forming friendships and relationships, kindling the same spirit as Ayrenn had with the town leaderships before. Sie had attempted to take Ayrenn’s role in that regard, but most of her time was spent on logistics and overseeing the recovery of the injured.

Among that number, young Earilas. It had taken a week for them to realize he had lost his hearing in the blast, and the healers were unsure if he’d ever regain it. So the others had been working on a growing set of hand signs, adapted from combat signals that were enabling him to communicate more effectively with the other council members. 

Their makeshift leadership council consisted of heads of different remaining sectors of Ayrenn’s army and those who had travelled with it. Sielaire had pulled the group together when it became apparent that she needed a way to delegate tasks and have an intermediating level of help when it came to overseeing the soldiers turned refugee laborers. She valued their input and varied opinions, and together they’d fostered the working relationship with the locals. Along with the surviving officers, she’d recruited Andra, the Chemist, and Earilas. Andra had become something more than a colleague after jumping into battle to save Sie’s life, and Sielaire had to admit that she considered the other alpha a friend. 

So far, their friendship seemed to mostly consist of attempting to out-irritate the other, which frequently reminded Sie of how much she missed her siblings. Andra was especially fond of bringing up Sie’s bond mark at inappropriate times, and calling attention to the battlereeve when she got distracted by thoughts of her distant mate... Though Sielaire had recently found a new outlet for her frustrations that also allowed her to exact her revenge for her new friend’s so called “teasing”.

In her few moments of peace, often late into the night, Sielaire would reread Ayrenn’s letter over and over, hearing the words in her heart and breathing in every nonspoken detail, marvelling at the swoops of her mate’s signature and Siren's tiny inked handprint pressed next to it, longing for them both dearly. 

* * *

Ayrenn was at the front of the column as the army rode into the small town. The majority of their number stayed in the field, the site of the now infamous battle. Some wandered off to pay their respects to the fallen, while most just rejoiced in the end of their double-timed march. As she and Urcelmo walked toward the center of town, hoping to meet with the town leadership, they encountered various members of Sie’s contingent. They would salute awkwardly with surprise before Ayrenn hastily dismissed them, sending them rushing to greet their friends waiting in the clearing, causing a bit of a stir as word spread throughout in the town. 

They found the Treethane with Earilas and the chemist, but Ayrenn was distracted. It seemed the entire town had passed her, but she hadn’t seen the one person she’d been longing to see. She tried to pay attention to their report and well-wishes, but her eyes were constantly scanning the treeline.  _ She was here, she was nearby. _ Ayrenn knew it, could feel it.

And then there she was.    
Sielaire emerged from around a tree trunk on the opposite side of the town from the clearing. Her green armor was like camouflage in the forest, with a shock of red as if to laugh at the very notion of her disappearing into the background, of going unseen by her Queen. But the splash or red wasn’t limited her wave of unruly hair... 

Ayrenn bolted toward her sweat-soaked, blood-splattered mate, crossing the distance in an instant, even as Sie rushed to close it herself.   
Ayrenn’s body smarted as Sielaire collided with her, lifting her up as Ayrenn squeezed desperately to her shoulders, less to balance herself and more to judge their wholeness. As the rare delight of Sielaire’s joyous laughter filtered her ears, she moved her hands worriedly to Sie’s face, accessing the apparent damage. She rubbed off the speckle of blood on Sie’s cheek and ran her fingers delicately across her brow, pulling herself forward to place her lips on the unharmed skin she had uncovered. 

Sie’s slightly crooked smile was bright as she brought her nose to rub gently against Ayrenn’s in a slightly teasing matter, “Don’t worry Renn, its not mine.”

Ayrenn’s eyes scanned her face, locking onto the scar on the left side of her lip, it had healed the slow way, and was undoubtedly the injury that Andralada had warned her about, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. “Why are you covered in someone else’s blood?”

“We were sparring...”

Ayrenn pretended to not be hurt, but knew Sie must have sensed it anyway as she trailed off. Ayrenn knew training was well within Sielaire’s duties, and she would never want her mate to be derelict in her training, but she couldn’t help the small bite of jealousy. Sparring had been exclusively “their” thing, a ritual that had laid the foundations of their relationship and the start of their courtship. The feeling of loss was unwarranted, but poignant. To reassure herself, Ayrenn lowered her hand back to Sie’s heart, resting her fingers on their bond mark.    
Sie’s voice was softer, not apologetic, but full of understanding when she continued, “Andra wanted some combat training because we're so down in numbers since Urcelmo's contingent is still missing.” Ayrenn nodded, trying to accept the practical explanation. “Renn,” Sie whispered, soft and deep with emotion, fingers soothing against her back until Ayrenn met her eyes, “You know it meant nothing. I am yours, alone.”    
Ayrenn’s cheeks pinkened as the sentiment had the desired effect. Ayrenn smiled and blinked the tears out of her eyes as she looked down at Sie, who’s earlier words suddenly registered. “Oh! Urcelmo!” Ayrenn pulled back and angled her body to direct Sie’s attention to the haggard battlereeve as the rest of the council joined their reunion. As Sie exclaimed over his return, Ayrenn finally took notice of Andra. Despite the smirk on the larger alpha’s face, Sielaire had clearly won their bout.

The Treethane attempted to invite Ayrenn back for a meeting, but with Sie’s arms still wrapped around her, she hardly noticed the conversation that continued around them. Had Sielaire’s ears always glowed so in the sunlight? Had her hair grown since their last meeting? When Ayrenn’s stroking of Sie’s ears nudged the circlet she had placed there months before, she realized her lover was sporting a new tan line across her forehead. Her unbridled laughter interrupted the treethane midsentence as she ran her fingers along the line, instantly distracting Sielaire further. 

Sielaire’s eyes were bright as they locked onto Ayrenn’s, fascinated by Ayrenn’s assessment of her. She watched as Ayrenn’s eyes slid back down to the scar on her lip. Sielaire’s excitement waned as she wondered how Ayrenn would see the mark of her incompetence. Self-consciously she pulled her ruined lip into her mouth and tried to turn her head away until it met the steel of Ayrenn’s grip. “Sie, you survived, you saved your contingent and you’re still here,” she boldly traced a finger across Sie’s lips until they parted, Sie’s body shuddering at the intimate caress, “This will remind me of all those you’ve helped protect, and I love it as I love  _ every  _ part of you.”

Earlias signalled to Andra, who laughed in agreement, “Yeah, we might have been expecting too much from reuniting bond mates.”

“Bond mates?!” Urcelmo repeated, stammering as the rest of Sie’s council chuckled knowingly. 

The treethane was equally shocked, large black eyes blinking in surprise, but finally understanding the Queen’s rebuff. “Ah,” The said with a fond smile that spoke of a wealth of pleasant memories as they turned back to the couple, “Then allow me to be the first to offer our best lodgings for the blissfully bonded...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be up earlier this week, but I was in a minor car incident and its thrown my week all out of whack.  
> The next chapter will probably be up monday? It was the chapter I had to split off from this one because it got a smidge smutty ;)


	16. Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reignited.

Sielaire led Ayrenn to the podhouse they’d been granted, swooping her up into her arms to carry her over the threshold. Ayrenn shrieked with giddy laughter, pausing only to whisper seductively in Sie’s ear, “Practicing for something are we?”

Sie responded with a wordless groan that was equal parts growl. Instead of setting her mate down once inside the thick leather door flaps, she carried her right to the bed and dumped her there with a smirk. Laughing, Ayrenn reached out one of her long legs and hooked it around Sie’s waist, pulling her down onto the covers and into her arms. Their mouths sought each other out, seeking reassurances of their past familiarity. One of Sie’s hands found its place at the crook of Ayrenn’s neck, massaging the side of her jaw and keeping their lips close, while she sampled all of Ayrenn’s offerings. She pecked and nibbled at the corners of Renn’s mouth between diving back in to deeper kisses, then pulling back only to suck Ayrenn’s swiftly swelling lower lip between her own, testing its plumpness against her teeth. Their panting breaths mingled as they rediscovered each other, as Sie concentrated her efforts on the mouth that was offering up sounds of pleasure as sweet as it tasted.

Ayrenn’s hands were not so single-minded. They roamed to reacquaint themselves with every facet of her lover. Sie’s hair was just as long and wild as before, though feathers seemed to have been added to the tie at the back of her head. With one hand, she stroked Sie’s ear suggestively as her other roamed its way along all of the exposed inches of flesh through Sie’s armor, at once both irritated at the vulnerabilities and flushed at the memory of watching sweat bead there during their journey, battles, and sparring bouts. Sie growled again and pulled her tighter, knocking Ayrenn’s crown askew. Ayrenn reached up and pulled it off, letting it clank loudly onto the stone floor. 

Sie’s fingers slid into her now accessible tresses, but the fresh air against her road-worn hair made Ayrenn suddenly self conscious. With a commanding push, she disengaged Sie from her feast, smoothing the action with a smile as Sie blinked at her in bewilderment. 

“I’ve brought in so much dirt from the road that we might as well be back on the floor of our tent,” she joked awkwardly. Looking anywhere but Sie’s lust-blown eyes, her own instead scanned their lodging, wondering what bathing options were available… and then movement at Sielaire’s chest drew her attention back to focus.

Sie was pulling her cape off her shoulders, along with all its shiny clasps and baubles. She let it fall, without fuss, to the floor alongside Ayrenn’s crown. Renn’s eyes soaked in her broad shoulders, but were drawn unerringly to the ample flesh below them. For there lay the proof of their bond. Its glow still partially staunched by the cup of Sie’s well-worn, protective leather undergarment. Renn’s hand raised to rest over the mostly-hidden mark, and she startles when she feels Sie has mirrored the motion, her hand over Renn’s heart. 

Her touch was electric, and Ayrenn was reminded of that time so long ago. She felt it all still, for the one before her. 

Desire.

Pain.

Surrender.

_ Heat _ . 

 

Sielaire’s eyes were fire and kindness as she began to reverently peel away Ayreen’s clothes. A kiss to every inch she revealed, lost in memories of their past and a desire to reforge new ones. A kiss to the pulse point at her wrist. A stroke of her hand along the smooth curve of a rib. She longed to worship the body she knew so well, but when she leaned back on her arms, Ayrenn remaining shy and still beneath her despite the Queen’s needy legs wrapped tight around her, Sie was struck numb with the reminder of all that’s come to pass. 

Sie’s hitching breaths of pleasure cracked with a different emotion. Her fingers slid like a whisper against Ayrenn’s still-noticeable post-baby pooch, tracing the stretch marks that now cross her lover’s skin like lace. Ayrenn’s trembling hands moved to intercept hers, to hide the mars on her once-perfect skin, but Sie caught them in her own as she bowed over between them, clutching their joined hands as she hid her face against Ayrenn’s abdomen.

“Sie?” Ayrenn asked, worry mounting. She pulled her hands free and cupped them around Sie’s jawline, pulling up her beautiful face. And there were tears, and fear, and longing in her lover’s eyes. “What’s wrong my love?”

“...will you… will you tell me about her?” 

And suddenly their impassioned frenzy became something wholly different. 

“Oh Sie, of course.” 

Clothes were shed as they moved to cradled each other skin-to-skin as they sat on the bed in each other’s arms. Ayrenn’s hands were running through Sie’s wild hair, her lips against her ear, as Sie stroked her hip and massaged her lower back and pressed her lips to Ayrenn’s neck, chest, anywhere she could reach without disengaging from her embrace. And Ayrenn lovingly recalled everything she could about their daughter, every minute detail of the short time they had shared. All the ways she reminds her of Sie and all the ways she doesn't. Tried to describe the color of her eyes and the pitch of her still-forming voice... The hollowness she’s carried since handing her over to Rilen. At the feeling she's betrayed the trust and love so innocently given to her and will never reclaim.

Sie pulled back when she felt Ayrenn becoming lost in the sorrow of her worries. Directing Renn to look at her in much the same way Renn had done to her earlier, so they were staring nose-to-nose into each other’s eyes, souls. So Ayrenn could feel the depth of her commitment.

“We  _ will  _ complete our mission, and as soon as we’re able- as soon as we secure her future, her birthright- we will reunite with our Siren. We  _ will _ be a family, and this pain will all be behind us.” The green of Sie’s essense crackles in the air around them, giving an undeniable weight to her words, her vow. 

Ayrenn moaned in response, her own magic slowly being drawn out by Sielaire’s, her ardor stoked by her lover’s intensity.

Sie smirked and rolled backwards, pulling Renn so she was straddling her hips, mounds pressing wondrously against each other, “Now, where were we…”

Ayrenn bit her lip as she gazed down at Sie below her, wiping the smirk off her lover’s face when she ground her hips down into her. The mark on Sie’s chest pulsed to the throb of her emerging erection against the wet heat of Ayrenn’s core. Renn set her fingers against the teal glow and smiled, “Right here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue is all that's left now folks!   
> Let me know what you think!


	17. Epilogue: Commitment

She had heard they were coming.  _ To take her.  _ Back to the fortress that might as well be all dungeon. The words she’d overheard late at night between her Ma and Va stung with the bitter cut of betrayal. She’d slunk back to Kael’s sleeping form and roused him awake. She didn’t want to leave the orchard, to leave  _ her home.  _ And though she and Kael had their squabbles, he was her brother and her best friend.  _ This  _ was where she belonged. 

They had slipped from the second story window and into the big creakily oak that hung just outside it. Wandering through the orchard in the dark, only the moon and intermittent flickers of magic from her fingers lit their way. 

It didn’t matter, she knew these trees better than she knew the weave of the tunic she wore. Better than the grain of the wood panelled ceiling in their bedroom, and far better than the strangers from the letters that Ma had called _ her parents _ . 

“You’re gonna make yourself tired doin’ that,” Kael lectured. 

She stuck out her tongue, “You’re just mad cause  _ you can’t _ .”

“I could if I tried!” he insisted. But she just smiled, sure in the fact that he _ had _ . “Shut up, do you want me to boost you or can you do that by yourself too now?”

“ _ Ka~el _ ,” she whined, “you promised!” He was slightly older than her, and while she might have proved herself to be just as fast as him, and a far better climber, he was still taller than her.  _ For now _ . 

* * *

“How are you so calm!?” Ayrenn roared, “This wouldn’t have happened if you had stayed in the Palace-”

“She’ll be fine. It’s not like this is the first time she’s run off,  _ it’s in her blood _ .”

Ayrenn wilted at Rilen’s unintentional jab, yet another in a long list of reminders that she had effectively, if not intentionally, abandoned her child. 

Sielaire sighed, knowing her sister’s comment was aimed at herself. “I’ll go find her, she can’t have gotten too far.” With a reassuring press against her mate’s back and a ‘be nice’ glare shot to her sister, Sie exitted her childhood home in search of the daughter she loved but had never met. 

Ayrenn wrung her hands as she paced the modest lower floor of Rilen’s home, thoughts scattered to the winds. Nearly five years had passed, their campaign across the mainland getting waylaid by endless politics, freak natural disasters, and a daedric invasion meant to herald the endtimes of the world. She hadn’t invissioned this reunion going anything but perfectly. Just recently she and Sie had decided to conceive again on their upcoming first shared heat. She had been so excited to introduce her playful little Siren to Sielaire and then grow their reunited family together… only to find Rilen had cryptically taken Siren away from the safety of Alinor. So they’d turned about and made the journey to Shimmerene, but just as on their mainland travels, nothing seemed to be going according to plan. “What if we never see her again?”

“Ayrenn, no. Even if Sie doesn’t spot her, she’ll be back, I’m sure of it.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Well,” Rilen laughed softly, “for one thing, she left Kael.”

“Oh? Are they close?”

Rilen nodded, “Like siblings.” She watched as the expression on her friend’s face changed. The worry was wiped clear, along with every other emotion on her friend’s expressive face- no doubt bundled up and shoved in a box in the back of the now-Empress’s mind. 

“Interesting.”

For that’s who stood in front of her now, a calmly intimidating ruler, confidently advancing up the stairs to face off against a sleeping five year old.

* * *

Sie’s detect life spell had quickly pointed her in the right direction. She had proceeded slowly, wanting to gather her nerves and make a good first impression. The child was up in a familiar tree, near the top of a rise still within sight of the house. It was dark, and Sie could not make out her form by sight alone. Despite the circumstances, Sie found herself proud of the youngster’s ability to remain hidden from the less magically-gifted. 

“ _ Sie _ ,” Renn’s voice crackled softly through the enchanted earring hanging about Sie’s ear.    
“She’s right here, love,” Sie was quick to inform her, a finger to the silver to return the communication.

“ _ Come back- _ ”   
“-in a tree not too far from me, I don’t want to… what?”

“ _ Sie, she thinks we’re kidnapping her. That we’re going to rip her away from everything she’s ever known. _ ”

Sie could hear the barely contained crack in Renn’s voice. She was distraught, as she had been most nights since returning to the battlefront without their daughter. 

Sielaire sighed as she discreetly cast a protective ward over the whole area. She’d know if anyone tried to enter or leave, and it assuaged her worry about leaving Siren huddled up there in the branches...

Sielaire almost ignored Ayrenn’s order, desperate for this to be behind them. For them to finally,  _ finally  _ be a family.  _ It isn’t fair _ . How could her  _ own child _ think they were here to kidnap her? She felt betrayed and rejected…. And ultimately that’s what made up her mind: If this was how Sie felt now… how must have Siren felt, all these years without them?

 

Virano, Sie and Rilen’s middle sibling, caught her attention from the doors of the barn as she made her way back to the manor house. A solitary sort, the omega had avoided the earlier drama of the Queen’s return, but greeted Sielaire now with a well-worn hand on her shoulder and a solemn nod.

“I have the whole orchard warded. Keeps the bandits out, and the rascals in. She’s run before, but never far.”

A weight fell from Sielaire’s shoulders, and she tugged on her brother’s arm, pulling him into a fierce hug. 

“Thank you, brother.”

He tolerated the contact for a few moments before batting her away with a groan. “Go calm your mate before she wakes  _ Jephre _ .”

 

Ayrenn was sitting on the dining table when Sie returned, bouncing her leg nervously, worrying her bottom lip. She launched herself from the well worn slab of wood and into her lover’s arms. They immediately moved to comfort her, as Sie pulled her into a reassuring embrace. 

Rilen observed them quietly, schooling her face into a knowing smirk meant to mask any errant envious longing rolling through her chest. They looked so natural together. Sie, a few inches shorter, didn’t seem it as Ayrenn folded into her. She could hear Ayrenn’s half-coherent worrying grow calmer as Sie stroked her back and effortlessly guided her through calming breaths. How many times had they done this over the last five years? The letters that Rilen had read to Siren so religiously over the years were careful not to focus too much on the troubles that had plagued their campaign, and though Sielaire had always been one to internalize her troubles, the toll that the last few years had had on the young queen were blatantly apparent. The girl Ayrenn had been when Rilen arrived in Alinor with Kaellian on her hip was gone. The Empress had come into her own, drawing on the strength and security of her finely matched mate.

“She thinks we’re kidnapping her?” Sie asked them both once Ayrenn had composed herself. Kael had taken one look at her and spilled. He’d told them of Siren’s worries and her grand plan to hide away in the trees until the strangers left them alone. Afterward, Rilen had assured him he wasn’t in trouble and tucked him back into bed.

“Well we  _ are _ here to ‘take’ her. She’s always been warned about the dangers of strangers, and she ...doesn’t know us.”

“Well we can’t get to know each other with her hiding from us,” Sielaire grumbled, gaze turning out toward the orchards where Siren hid in the cover of darkness.

Ayrenn stroked Sie’s arm for a few quiet moments until Sie’s hand moved to grasp hers and twine their fingers together. 

“I remember how I got  _ your _ attention, when you wouldn’t let me get to know  _ you _ ,” Ayrenn softly sing-songed.

Rilen was surprised to see a small smirk tug at Sie’s lips as she answered, “That seems…  _ inappropriate- _ ”

“Sie!” Ayrenn pushed their joined hands into Sie’s chest. “I meant sparring!”

“Is that what you called it?” Rilen murmured, earning a light-hearted glare from each of them.

 

So Ayrenn and Sielaire planned to make their move in the morning. Neither got much sleep. 

Sie was antsy, watching out the window from her parent’s old bedroom, desperate to meet her child. Wondering if they’ll have anything in common. If they’ll be able to bond after such a delayed first meeting. 

Renn was lost in thoughts of those few precious times she had had with Siren. Daydreaming of picking up where they had left off. She squeezed the pillow to herself, imagining cuddling her oh-so-expressive baby tight in her arms again. 

* * *

Siren woke to the sound of metal clanging on metal, the bark of the tree that had been her bed, imprinting itself into her skin. She groggily traced the sound to the paddock near the barn, where she could just make out movement. Swordfighting was something Siren was no stranger to.  Sometimes Ma’s friends would come and visit, treating her and Kael to mock duels. Laughing as she and her brother imitated their attacks with fallen branches. Siren knew she did better, but Kael still claimed he won more of their duels than her.

She was just wiping her dew-dampened bangs out of her face when she heard the crackle lightning. With wide eyes she saw the green sparks that accompanied the sound, rising above the paddock, quickly followed by an answering trail of blue.

Someone was was dueling…  _ with magic. _

She’s nearly dropped herself from her perch in excitement when she remembers. With an intrinsic surety she didn’t question, she knew the strangers from the night before were the source of the magic. Her curiosity and anger warred inside her. She resolved to watch, but not be seen, before dropping from the tree and into the mud below.

* * *

Renn circled Sie, her blade held defensively in one hand while the other prepared her magic. She caught a glimpse of Sie’s bare back as she spun back into position, the straps of her ‘armor’ ripped apart as messily as the slit Renn had sliced up the side of her skirt was clean. She saw Sie bite-back a reproach for taking out her long-standing grievances with the more-aesthetic-than-protective garb, but if Sie was going to hold back, then Renn had no problem taking the advantage. 

Renn let loose a whip that snaked loosely across Sie’s ass. Sie scowled at her as Renn smirked back playfully. Sie threw up a protective shield as Renn rushed forward to attack with her spell-enshrouded blade. Virano had warned Sielaire about summoning anything more impressive than very localized lightning strikes, worried about her famously powerful electric storms frying the trees and endangering their harvest. Their play had started casually enough, but Renn had put more accuracy into their recreation than Sie had anticipated. Just as she had when they first met, Renn was pushing Sie to not hold back. Forcing her to protect herself and inciting her full retaliation, her full power, focused solely on her. 

Ayrenn’s blade, flaming blue as it cut through the air, hit the force of Sielaire’s shimmering green shields, arcing along her bracer and kicking up a swirl of bright teal mist to match the slowly pulsing glow of their bond marks. As they came back together, Ayrenn’s focus slid away from Sie, and Sie seized the opening. She snaked a tendril of magic past Renn’s defenses and stunned her in place, mouth open in a slight “o” of surprise. 

_ Irresistible _ . Sie stepped up to Renn and rocked herself slightly onto her to toes, pressing her lips to Renn’s with a smile. “You have my attention, are you happy now?” 

Renn’s own magic was twirling around Sie’s limbs, and Sie took a deep, controlled breath, expecting to feel Renn’s constriction as they were bathed in teal light. Instead, she felt Renn’s phantom touch squeeze around her open hand. 

Ayrenn’s eyes motion swiftly to the side as Sie releases her into her embrace. “Mmm, you’re not the only one.” 

 

Sie turned to see the dirt-and leaf covered child, wild hair sticking up in every direction, bright as flame, a combination of her and Renn’s coloring, that Sie would have thought unfortunate before seeing it frame this specific face. She was small still, but her form was already leaning toward lanky, and Sie easily imagined her growing to Renn’s height or even taller. Her cherubic face was covered in freckles, as Alwin and Raz had oft claimed Renn’s had been as a child. Her once fine robes- surely Rilen’s handiwork- were covered in stains and full of small tears. But her eyes, oh but her eyes. They were a bright, electric blue, so different than Ayrenn’s beautiful hue that it seemed ignoble to classify them as the same color. As Sie stared, she was reminded of the clear tropical waters of Summerset’s strait. Of freedom and cool breezes and the clear skies of carefree summer days.

And there it was, the other part of her heart, the child of their bond. Sie felt her chest near to bursting, as her and Renn’s bond marks pulsed and amplified the glow of their essence around them. 

 

Siren saw the two women, the two should-be strangers, shrouded in an aura of Siren’s own magic. She saw the nose that was her own. Her same flyaway hair. 

She had watched as they danced with power and cunning and unimaginable skill. In attacks far more deadly and daring than any sparring match she’d spied before, or heard read to her from letter or story book.

She had seen the looks of love and trust that passed between them as they stole kisses and touches and smiles. 

And she saw everything she was, and everything she wanted--

Tucked behind the crowns that had taken it all away from her.

And burst into tears.

 

They had been waiting for her to make the first move, but when Siren was suddenly bawling, they're both kneeling down next to her in an instant. Their little girl was curled up in on herself, overcome with emotions too big for her tiny body to contain. 

Sie was afraid to touch her, immobilized by a fear unlike anything she’d felt before, terrified of inadvertently making things worse. 

Renn could barely stop herself from just scooping Siren up. She’d grown so much, but here she was, just as she’d last seen her. As Siren had reached for her  _ then _ , Ayrenn reached out now, and gently clasped her hand on Siren’s lean shoulder. So tall. She really wasn’t a baby anymore- her long ears were near fully unfurled. Her tuft of fuzz had grown into an unruly mane… 

Ayrenn moved to tuck a tendril of it out of Siren’s face. _Futile_ , it was just like Sie’s. She felt her mate’s hand resting nervously on her back as their daughter continued to blather incomprehensibly.

“Siren…” Renn asked softly, “what's wrong?”

Snot and tears running down her face as she ducked again to hide from them, Siren reached out her little palm in reply, shooting off an erratic trickle of teal sparks. 

After a pause, Renn reached her hand out to rest against the side of Siren’s. She twirled her fingers and a familiar illusion of twinkling blue stars appeared between them. As Siren’s sobs slowly faded, Sie reached out, entwining her fingers with Ayrenn’s. As she cast the same simple illusion, the three of them watched wordlessly as the stars merged and faded to teal. With her free hand, Sie gently cradled Siren’s hand and channeled the spell through the girl, so she could feel how casting it felt. Sie’s heart swelled with pride as Siren’s sparks became roughly twinkling stars beside their own. 

Then Siren was in Ayrenn’s arms, cuddled close to her chest as Renn wrapped her arms around her baby, and fell into the sure embrace of her lover. Sie caught them as they tumbled to the dew-damp grass, arms around them both as she held them in her lap. Renn’s hand snaked out of the tangle of limbs to hold Sie’s face against her own as their crowns knocked against each other, and they gazed down at Siren, who’s face was pressed against Ayrenn’s neck, illuminated by the light of their bond mark and the newly dawning sun.

* * *

Their next few days were slow and stressful, Ayrenn postponing various engagements and ceremonies that had been planned to lead up to Sielaire’s coronation… to their wedding. Instead of Sielaire’s scheduled studies and preparatory rites, they were learning how to be a family. 

The siblings reacquainted themselves while including Ayrenn in some of the work involved with life on a cider farm, as the kids performed the same basic chores Sie remembered teaching Virano and Rilen as children. Daily chores complete, Sie would help Siren learn how to channel her magic, marvelling at the girl’s natural aptitude and eagerness to learn. Renn read bedtime stories late into the night, until both children could no longer keep their eyes open. Sielaire cooked traditional dishes for her family, that they ate while crowded around the humble table. “For dessert,” Ayrenn chased her daughter and fiance around the house with spoonfuls of applesauce, Siren’s squeals and Sielaire’s scolds blending into a joyous racket. They went for walks in the orchard, Siren swinging between their arms. Some nights Kael would ask for stories about their conquests, and Siren would listen in whenever Renn spoke, drawn like a moth to the flame of her dam’s hauntingly familiar voice, while her sire’s lap made for the comfiest perch to fall asleep on.

After a month, they traveled home, all six of them, in preparation of Ayrenn and Sielaire’s wedding. Rilen was inexplicably nervous to return the castle, but reassured by the presence of the Queen and her soon-to-be-Consort. She shoo’ed Siren off to join her mothers as they went to spend the day at an exclusive tattoo parlor in Riverside Market, confident the safest place for Siren in Alinor was within the enshrouding presence of her dam and sire.

* * *

Siren sat in Sie’s lap as they watched the artist stylistically recreate the pattern on Ayrenn’s chest that was now faintly glowing, signifying that their shared heat would begin in the next few days. To keep the child entertained, Sielaire would flash an entry level spell in one of her two hands, challenging Siren to identify and then reproduce the spell on her own. When Siren had mastered the game before they took a lunch break, Sie had added sequential flashes of different spells as Siren was challenged to remember the ever-growing pattern as well practicing her magic. Sielaire was happy to hold her daughter close, especially with Renn struggling to completely mask the pain of the needles inking her skin as the artist finished up. The game was forgotten when Renn stood and was bathed in the glow of a healing spell by the artist’s assistant. Once Siren got a clear view of what had been etched onto her dam’s chest- the same mark as her sire’s- she gently touched Sie’s and pointed to Renn’s.“I want the picture, too!” 

The parlor was filled with chuckles at the unintentionally raunchy request so innocently made. Siren’s ears pinkened as she realized everyone's eyes were on her, laughter masking a judgement she felt but didn’t understand. 

Sielaire felt her daughter’s weight shift uncomfortably, pressing into her body as if she could sink away into it. “Maaaybe when you’ve grown up,” Sie offered smoothly, making a mental note to insure Siren was better versed on Alpha and Omega customs than Ayrenn had been. She stood and placed Siren on the ground before her, nodding her thanks to the artist.

Ayrenn had been watching her daughter’s face. She had seen how the scoffs had affected her, and saw as Siren’s eyes found the door as soon as Sie released her, ready to bolt. She reached for Siren’s shoulder, barely getting a hand around her upper arm. Siren was spun around of her own momentum, and Renn did her best to hide the reaction, offering her hand for Siren to grasp instead. 

“Hmm, actually, I have an idea,” the Empress suggested, leading her daughter out of the shop without a backward glance, quickly wiping away any of the remaining smirks from those inside. 

 

That night, exhausted from the emotional day and preparing for the even more taxing one to come, Ayrenn and Sielaire lay in their bed, sharing breath and looks but both too tired to start anything physical. 

“I don’t know how Rilen does this, day in and day out,” Ayrenn said with a yawn.

“Mmmmm…. and she had Kaellian, too.” 

“Oh gods, I can’t imagine having  _ two _ …” 

“ _ We should wait _ ,” they suggested in unison, putting off their plan to conceive again during their upcoming heat.

“ … yeah. Can’t imagine there’d be a problem getting blockers in Alinor,” Sie reasoned.

Renn nodded against her pillow. She’d been looking forward to growing their family, but now it seemed unfair to Siren, knowing the time and attention a baby would need when Siren was still at such a delicate stage. “Next time.”

“Mhmm,” Sie mumbled, eyes already closed, and Ayrenn suspected- half asleep.

 

The Wedding-Coronation became not just Sielaire’s official joining of the family, but Siren’s as well. Announced as the heir to Ayrenn’s throne, she stood with her henna-dyed hands from the day before in branching patterns to match the well-displayed marks on her mothers. They were formally presented thus, Ayrenn, Sielaire, and Siren Aldmeri, The Royal Family, inked and bound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading Commitment!   
> Its been nine months in the making and there's still so much more to tell!  
> The story will continue, but as in this final chapter, Sie and Renn will step from the forefront as their daughters and friends tell their own tales.   
> (Why did Rilen take Siren from Alinor? What happened to Andralda? How does Siren cope with life as a Royal? and where/who is Astaire???)

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  Had a bit of break in writing as I picked up ESO during the Steam Summer sale and and HOOKED. But recently got the main part of this fic finished, just need to write the epilogue. Its at least a chapter longer now though. 
> 
> Thank you Lycoriseum and countless wikis.
> 
> If you have any questions about the A/B/O dynamics used, ask away.


End file.
